Latest news with #SabariRail
The Hindu
4 hours ago
- Business
- The Hindu
Sabari rail project: Railway Board holds meet with Chief Secretary
A team from the Railway Board held discussions with Chief Secretary A. Jayathilak in Thiruvananthapuram on Tuesday to explore ways to take the Sabari Rail project forward. Official sources said the delegation, which included Additional Railway Board Member Rajesh Agarwal, Chief Administrative Officer Om Prakash, and Kerala Rail Development Corporation (KRDC) Managing Director Ajith Kumar, held deliberations on cost-sharing arrangements and land acquisition for the project. Another round of meeting to deliberate in detail on these aspects will be held soon While the State government has expressed only conditional willingness to share project costs, the Railways continue to insist on a 50:50 cost-sharing model. It has also asked the State to bear a portion of the expenditure already incurred. In addition, the State is expected to complete land acquisition up to Erumely. The Railways have agreed to begin construction once this is achieved. The 110-km Angamaly–Erumely route was first announced in the Railway Budget for 1997–98. So far, land has been acquired for an 8-km stretch and construction has been completed on a 7-km section between Angamaly and Kalady.
Indian Express
4 days ago
- Business
- Indian Express
Kerala told to start land acquisition with its 50% project cost: Vaishnaw on Sabarimala rail project
Land acquisition for the long-pending Angamali-Sabarimala Railway line, also called Sabari Rail project, is likely to begin soon as recent discussions between Kerala government and Railways Ministry indicate a renewed push to implement the project. In a written reply to questions from Congress's Jebi Mather Hisham in RS Friday, Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said that in a recent meeting with CM Pinarayi Vijayan, the state government has been requested to begin land acquisition by using its share of 50% of the project cost. Vaishnaw said that once land acquisition by the state starts, work can proceed further. The 111-km Angamali-Sabarimala railway line project via Erumeli was sanctioned in 1997-98. It is among the crucial railway projects in Kerala, which is expected to cater to the pilgrims visiting Sabrimala temple. Erumeli is the gateway to the famous hill temple. However, only the work on Angamali-Kaladi (7 km) line and long lead works on Kaladi-Perumbavoor (10 km) were taken up so far. Vaishnaw said that further works could not be taken up due to protests against land acquisition and fixing of alignment of the line, court cases against the project and inadequate support from the state government. The project's estimated cost has been revised to `3,801 crore by Kerala Rail Development Corporation Ltd (KRDCL) and submitted to Kerala government in December, 2023. In August 2024, the Kerala government gave its conditional consent to the estimate. Later, the Railways Ministry asked the state government to give unconditional consent for sharing the cost. The ministry also asked the Kerala government to enter into a tripartite MoU among the state government, Ministry of Railways and RBI for the project. 'However, in a memorandum submitted by Kerala government to the Railway Minister on June 3, 2025, it has been intimated that the Kerala government does not agree to enter into tripartite agreement,' Vaishnaw said. An MoU was inked between the state and the Railways Ministry in January 2016 but work could not be started due to ambiguity over financing and sharing of total cost. Dheeraj Mishra is a Principal correspondent with The Indian Express, Business Bureau. He covers India's two key ministries- Ministry of Railways and Ministry of Road Transport & Highways. He frequently uses the Right to Information (RTI) Act for his stories, which have resulted in many impactful reports. ... Read More
The Hindu
6 days ago
- Business
- The Hindu
Kerala will bear land acquisition cost of Sabari Rail project: Minister tells Parliament
Clearing the ambiguity over the financing of the Sabari Rail project, the Union Railway Ministry has made it clear that Kerala will acquire the land required for the project using the State share, ie 50% of the project cost. The State government has agreed to acquire land using its share of 50% of the project cost. Once land acquisition by the State started, work on the project could be taken forward, said Railways Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw in reply to a question in Parliament on Wednesday. To a specific question whether the Union government had any plans to extend the railway line to Thiruvananthapuram to connect the Vizhinjam International Seaport, the Minister made it clear that there was no relation between the Sabarimala rail project and the Vizhinjam International Seaport. There had been ambiguity regarding sharing the cost of the project as the State had been maintaining that the liability incurred by it by financing the project through the Kerala Infrastructure Investment Fund Board (KIIFB) should be fully exempted from the State's borrowing limit. The Union government then suggested a tripartite agreement to implement the project, involving the State government, the Ministry of Railways, and the Reserve Bank of India. However, in the memorandum submitted by the Kerala government to the Railway Minister on June 3, the State government made it clear that it would not agree to enter into a tripartite agreement as suggested by the Union government. High-level committee During a meeting between Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan and Mr. Vaishnaw in June, the Union Minister had promised that a high-level committee from the Railway ministry would visit the project site in July as part of reviving the project. However, the committee had not yet visited Kerala, though the State government had directed District Collectors of Ernakulam, Idukki, and Kottayam to restore the land acquisition units and to finalise the revised alignment of the railway line to speed up implementation of the project, said government sources. As per the revised estimate, the project will cost ₹3,810.69 crore. The 110-km Angamaly-Erumely route was first announced in the 1997-98 Railway Budget. Land acquisition had been completed in 8 km, while the work on the 7-km stretch between Angamaly and Kalady was completed earlier.
