No coach factory, no high-speed rail: Centre rejects Palakkad project, rules out fast rail

NEW DELHI: The Central government has ruled out setting up the long-pending coach factory at Kanjikode in Palakkad, ending a project Kerala had been waiting for for more than four decades. The decision deprives the state of a major opportunity for industrial growth and employment. Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw also told the Rajya Sabha that neither the controversial SilverLine project nor the alternative high-speed rail proposal would be implemented in Kerala.

Responding to a question from John Brittas, the minister said the Centre had dropped the Kanjikode coach factory proposal because existing coach manufacturing facilities in the country were sufficient and there was no need for another factory. The 228 acres of land acquired by the Railways at Kanjikode would instead be reserved for future railway projects.

Ashwini Vaishnaw said the SilverLine project had been abandoned after the Kerala government decided not to proceed with it. He also said the state government had withdrawn from the high-speed rail corridor proposed by E. Sreedharan after an expert committee concluded that the project could not be implemented in its existing form. The Railways said coaches and locomotives are available from its units at Raebareli, Kanchrapara and Sonipat.

The minister added that the Railways would accelerate development and survey work on various railway projects covering 873 km in Kerala. Surveys for four-tracking rail corridors would also be completed at the earliest, and priority would be given to introducing more train services. Ashwini Vaishnaw said that although surveys had begun for railway expansion projects, delays in land acquisition remained a major challenge. Of the 618 hectares required for ongoing projects, only 78 hectares have been acquired so far. He added that the Centre has already transferred ₹1,976 crore to the Kerala government for land acquisition.

Promise that never materialised

The Kanjikode coach factory has a history stretching back more than four decades:

• In 1982, then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi announced the project during an Assembly election campaign meeting at Kotta Maidan in Palakkad.
• After her assassination in 1984, the project was shifted to Kapurthala in Punjab. Rajiv Gandhi laid the foundation stone for the ₹423-crore project in 1985.
• The proposal was revived in the 2008–09 Railway Budget by then Railway Minister Lalu Prasad Yadav. The V. S. Achuthanandan government acquired 439 acres for the project.
• During the tenure of Chief Minister Oommen Chandy, the Railways acquired about 230 acres of the land by paying compensation.
• In February 2012, then Railway Minister Dinesh Trivedi laid the foundation stone for the project in the presence of Oommen Chandy.