Title - Kerala considers suburban rail corridor

With questions being raised over the viability of the ambitious high speed rail corridor project, the Congress-led United Democratic Front government in Kerala has grabbed a proposal for setting up a suburban corridor in the state.
The state cabinet has asked Mumbai Railway Vikas Corporation, which operates the suburban services in Mumbai, to study the feasibility of the proposal mooted by the Trivandrum Railway Division for introducing suburban train services from the state capital of Trivandrum to Chengannur and Harippad.The project is proposed to be taken up as a joint venture between the Indian Railways and the state government. Chief Minister Oommen Chandy said the government had taken the proposal seriously as it would cost an investment of only Rs200 million for a kilometre.This is much lower than the high speed north-south corridor and road development projects being considered by the government. Chandy said the officials who studied the suburban service in Mumbai were of the opinion that it could be introduced in the state by upgrading platforms and other facilities.

He said there was no need for separate lines for running Mainline Electrical Multiple Units (Memu). The Memu services would be scheduled in such a way as not to affect the passenger and express train services along the routes.

However, railway officials are sceptic about running the service by using the existing infrastructure. They have pointed out that the existing double lines in Kerala were highly saturated and they would not be able to sustain the suburban services. A third line is unthinkable in the state as it is still not able to complete the line doubling due to difficulties in acquiring land. Moreover, the railways have not been able to operate even short distance suburban services with the current infrastructure.

The railway officials say the investment estimated for upgrading infrastructure to facilitate suburban services was not realistic. They say the track circuiting, automatic signalling system, raising the height of the platforms and others needed for suburban services would need huge funds. Many feel the suburban project may languish as the high speed rail corridor project. The government has not been showing interest in the latter with experts saying that it will end up as a white elephant.

Experts say the high speed corridor project which will incur an interest of Rs59 billion a year can become viable only if the tickets are priced higher than air fares. This will make the high speed rail corridor a travel option for the super rich. Experts say such a travel will be unaffordable to the public and would make the project nonviable to the state.

CTS Nair, a former chief economist with the Food and Agriculture Organisation, said Japan had disbanded its high speed service due to accumulating debts. He said several other countries pursuing similar projects were reconsidering them. -news@khaleejtimes.com