Vande Bharat to more cities in Kerala; Train commuters harbor high hopes

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Kerala is keeping high hopes ahead of the union budget announcement on Saturday. The state strongly expects the central government to allocate funds for the Silverline project, stalled Sabari project and Vande Bharat trains to Chennai and Bangalore from Kerala.

Even though many projects including an integral coach factory were proposed, Kerala found its way out of it due to odd reasons. The current practice is to allocate an amount in the general budget for railways and divide it on a zonal basis. This time ahead of the budget, the finance ministry has sanctioned a loan of Rs 79,398 crores to the railways. Therefore, it is expected that there will be announcements for railway modernization in the budget and the state will get a share of it as railway development schemes.

The Sabari project is in limbo as the state government has withdrawn without signing the tripartite agreement on the Angamaly –Erumeli route. Before the budget, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan and Minister of State in charge of Railways V. Abdurahiman met Union Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnav and submitted a petition. Silverline project has been requested to be included in the budget.

90 per cent of the trains in Kerala service through the Thiruvananthapuram-Manguluru route. With 627 bends, the average speed on this route is 45 kmph. The average speed of Vande Bharat trains on this route is 73 kmph. Two Vande Bharat trains operate on this route. The trains servicing these routes are always chock full of passengers. It is to reap profits from this high traffic that the state mulled plans for the Silverline project.