Title - ‘High-speed Rail survey fears baseless’

District Collector P I Sheik Pareeth said that the apprehensions regarding the High-speed Rail survey is baseless. The survey, which is being conducted in the district by the DMRC, is just a precursor for a feasibility study.They will submit the report on it in December. The Collector clarified that a final decision on the alignment of the route will be taken only after the feasibility study. He was speaking at a meeting convened on Saturday to allay the doubts which arose in connection with the high-speed rail corridor. The representatives of the local self-governments attended the meeting.Pareeth said that the control points that have been installed at various points are in connection with the satellite survey, which is a part of the feasibility study. The route for the high-speed rail will be found out within a radius of 500 metres to 2 km. “There is no need to panic as the government has notified to come up with an alignment excluding thickly populated areas, churches and temples,” he said.The Collector said that the government envisages to construct the Kasargod-Thiruvananthapuram and Kochi-Palakkad high-speed rail corridors. The DMRC is currently conducting the feasibility study of the former which has an estimated outlay of Rs 1.20 lakh crore.The HSRC will have an elevated rail, which passes over the pillars, and an underground rail. DMRC chief engineer G Radhakrishnan said that the distance between the pillars of the elevated rail will be 25 metres.

Where the elevated rail is constructed, land with a width of 15 metres will be acquired. He said that since the rail route passes underground through the thickly populated areas, the need to acquire land in those places will not arise. “In Kochi, plans are on to identify land to set up stations at the eastern side of Vytilla Mobility Hub. The bullet train will reach Kochi from Thiruvananthapuram within 43 minutes,” he said.

Apart from Thiruvananthapuram and Kasargod, there will be eight stations between Thiruvananthapuram and Kasargod - Kollam, Chengannur, Kottayam, Kochi, Thrissur, Thirur, Kozhikode and Kannur. Thrikkakara municipal chairman P I Muhammad Ali, Deputy Collector (Land Acquisition) Mohandas Pilla, Eloor municipal chairperson Lisi George attended the meet.