‘RRTS is election stunt, move to sabotage parallel project,’ E Sreedharan’s reply to govt

PALAKKAD: Metroman E Sreedharan stepped forward strongly criticizing the state government in the high-speed rail corridor in Kerala. Sreedharan reiterated that the K-Rail project is not feasible and alleged that the chief minister is deliberately delaying the submission of his proposed alternative project to the Centre. He was speaking to the media in Palakkad.

He was responding to chief minister's mockery and doubts about his role in the exclusion of K-Rail. He also asked why the alternative project that the chief minister had praised earlier is now being rejected.

'I had directly told the chief minister during the discussion that K-Rail is not going to be implemented anyway. He agreed then to write to the Centre for a new project. However, even after ten months, no action has been taken. The government is still in the dark. The government is not responding even after being informed that the draft of the project will be prepared and submitted. The government is hesitating to send the letter even though the officials in the chief minister's office have a clear understanding about this,' clarified Sreedharan.

‘Met the union railway minister directly because the state government is unnecessarily delaying the process. If we do not intervene now, Kerala will lose the high-speed railway forever. The high-speed rail is not the personal agenda of any political party, it is the need of the people. We need a project that is not harmful to the environment and the people. The semi-high-speed project Regional Rapid Transit System (RRTS) that is presently being discussed is just an election stunt,’ he added.

He also said that the next step is to prepare a detailed project report (DPR) related to the project. Metroman is fully hopeful of getting central approval.