The Hindu : Kerala / Thiruvananthapuram News : Land acquisition likely to delay Vallarpadam rail link

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Aug 11, 2006

Kerala

Kerala - Thiruvananthapuram

Land acquisition likely to delay Vallarpadam rail link

S. Anil Radhakrishnan

Acquisition of 15.37 hectares of land needed for providing the link has not commenced till date

Thiruvananthapuram: The Rs.215-crore project for establishing rail connectivity to Vallarapadam Island in Kochi for the proposed International Container Transhipment Terminal (ICTT) seems headed for a quagmire after stumbling over the contentious issue of land acquisition.

The rail connectivity was scheduled for completion by March 2009. Rail Vikas Nigam Limited (RVNL) under the Union Ministry of Railways has been entrusted with the work, for which tenders have been floated. But acquisition of 15.37 hectares of land for providing the link has not begun yet.

RVNL wants to finalise the tenders by September this year and begin the work in right earnest since it has a gestation period of only two-and-a-half years. The proposed railway link, 7 km in length, would have a 3.5-km bridge. "The aim is to complete the rail link by March 2009. Given the pace at which the State is proceeding with the land acquisition, the completion of the rail link is to exceed the target date," a senior railway official told The Hindu .

Four alignments had been suggested for providing a railway link to Vallarpardam.Southern Railway General Manager Thomas Varghese told The Hindu that the alignment runs parallel along the existing railway line from Edapally to Vadathula and takes a turn from Vadathula to cut across the island to reach Vallarapadam.

But locals in Vaduthula are up in arms against the proposed rail link. According to the official, only 82 houses have to be displaced from the 15.37 hectares of land needed for providing the link.

He said similar circumstances have been delaying the Rs.138-crore Guruvayur-Tanur railway line sanctioned in 1999.

The proposed 51-km line assumes great significance in view of the heavy movement of containers anticipated along the stretch once the ICTT at Vallarpadam is commissioned.

Although the final location survey was taken up, only 30 km of the proposed route could be surveyed. As much as 131 hectares of land is required, against which land acquisition proposals have been given by Railways in respect of 56.22 hectares on November 24, 2002.

However, the State Government had not handed over the land. The funds allocated for the project since 1999-2000 had lapsed. A sum of Rs.5 crores was allocated in the Railway budget this year. The non-utilisation of funds for the proposed line has come up for discussion at the level of Minister, sources said.

Mr. Varghese said the decision to connect Guruvayur with Tanur on the Shornur-Kozhikode stretch was taken after detailed studies and examining various alternatives. The earlier proposal of the railways in 1995 to connect Guruvayur and Kuttipuram was dropped following opposition from locals.

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