The Hindu : Front Page : Pressure to abandon Sabari rail project

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Saturday, Oct 11, 2008
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Pressure to abandon Sabari rail project

S. Anil Radhakrishnan

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: With land acquisition for the Sabari rail project running into rough weather and the Environment Impact Assessment (EIA) terming the project as “unviable and superfluous,” pressure is mounting on Railways to abandon the Rs.550-crore project aimed at bringing Sabarimala onto the railway map of the country.

The Natural Ecological and Public Interest Local Residents Protection Association and Karshaka Raksha Samithy, among others, are on the warpath to scrap the 130-km Sabari railway line from Angamaly to Azhutha. The line goes through Ernakulam, Idukki and Kottayam districts and covers 22 panchayats and four municipalities.

As many as seven panchayats in Kottayam and Karimkunnam panchayat in Idukki have adopted resolutions demanding abandoning of the project.

The legislators from Kottayam have opposed the project at a meeting convened by State Minister for Railways M. Vijayakumar.

The agitators are hoping that Railways and the State will take a similar decision as in the case of the Kottayam-Erumeli line. Conceived in 1999, the 44-km Kottayam-Erumeli line was abandoned two years ago following severe resistance from the farmers who were to be displaced.

The notification under Section 4(1) of the Land Acquisition Act had been issued for acquiring land from Karimkunnam village in Idukki had been issued without fixing the alignment of the railway line in Kottayam district.

The rapid EIA has concluded that the prevalence of an exceptional road network connecting Sabarimala to various destinations renders the new rail proposal at “such colossal costs and ecological and social disruptions unviable and superfluous” and hence the project is not recommended.

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