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Indian Railways set to help Kerala execute projects

The MoU will be signed by concerned officials in the presence of Federal Minister for Railways Suresh Prabhu and Kerala state minister in-charge for Railways Aryadan Mohammed at New Delhi on January 19.

Trivandrum: After Maharashtra and Odisha, Kerala has geared up to join hands with the Indian Railways in executing key infrastructure projects.
The state will kick off the joint venture (JV) with the Railways by taking up a suburban train service in the state. The state government will formalise the JV by entering into a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) for establishing a suburban line between the state capital of Trivandrum and Chengannur, which is the nearest railway station to the famed Sabarimala temple.
The MoU will be signed by concerned officials in the presence of Federal Minister for Railways Suresh Prabhu and Kerala state minister in-charge for Railways Aryadan Mohammed at New Delhi on January 19.
The MoU seeks to establish a special purpose vehicle for setting up the suburban corridor and commencing suburban train services on the 84-km route. The state government has agreed to invest 51 per cent cost of the project in the SPV. The remaining will be met by the Indian Railways.
Chief Minister Oommen Chandy, who had discussed the project with the federal minister during his visit to New Delhi last month, said that the state government will seek support of financial institutions, including the World Bank, for raising its share, which comes to about Rs15 billion according to current estimates.
The federal government has allowed the project-specific special purpose vehicles (SPVs) to seek investments from other stakeholders like banks, public sector undertakings, ports, mining companies, etc.
The proposed suburban rail corridor involves upgradation of existing rail line, foot and road over bridges and level crossings, introduction of automatic signalling system and modernisation of the railway stations. The project is estimated to cost Rs30 billion as per the current cost of Rs200 million for a km.
A senior railway official said that the suburban services can be operated without creating additional line, which involves acquisition of land. Most railway projects in the state remained stalled due to problems with land acquisition.
The officials said that only the line needs to be track circuited and the present absolute signaling system replaced with automatic signalling system for operating the suburban service. The automatic signalling system costs only Rs35 million per km.
The state government had toyed with the idea of establishing a high-speed north south rail corridor to make travel hassle free in the state. The state government opted for the suburban corridor as it is cheap compared to the north-south high-speed corridor.
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