Land acquisition for SilverLine should stop, Centre tells HC

‘In-principle nod is only for preparation of DPR’

KOCHI

The Central government on Friday tolda Division Bench of theKerala High Court that the proceedings of land acquisition for the SilverLine semi-high speed rail corridor projectshould be stopped at this stage as, even the feasibility of the present alignment has not been agreed upon by the Union Ministry of Railways.When the State government appeal against a single judge’s directive to deferthe conduct of survey of land for the project came up for hearing, S. Manu, Assistant Solicitor General of India, submitted that the Centre had received many representations against the project.

The major issue related to destroying thousands of hectares of cultivable land,20,000 houses,shops, and other establishments. Besides, the SilverLine would be an obstacle to the expansion of Angamaly railway station which operated for the Food Corporation of India.He submitted that the detailed project report (DPR)submittedby Kerala Rail Development Corporation Limited (K-Rail) was under the scrutiny by the Railway Board. K-Rail had planned this corridor parallel to the existing track in approximately 200 km length where 10-15 m railway land was being utilised by K-Rail for the proposed corridor.