K-Rail: State govt seeks Centre’s full approval, sends letter to railways

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The state government has sent a letter to the centre seeking full approval for K-Rail. The letter was sent by Chief Secretary V P Joy to the railway board chairman. The state government has sought approval for the project as two years have passed after submitting the Detailed Project Report (DPR). The letter was sent a week before the Thrikkakkara bypoll.

The DPR was submitted before the central government on June 17, 2020. However, the project has not been approved so far. The state government is going ahead with the measures. The land survey work, which is to be carried out in collaboration with the railways, has also been completed. It is in this stage that the government has sought the centre’s full approval as soon as possible.

As protests intensified against the K-Rail stone-laying, the government had directed the district collectors to use geo-tag facilities. However, this has also been halted temporarily.

The K-Rail said that the state government implementing the SilverLine project has the power to acquire land and conduct social impact assessment study. K-Rail came forward with the explanation after the central government clarified in court that it had not given permission for the SilverLine social impact study and had not asked the government to lay stones in the name of the survey.

The government has the authority to lay boundary stones at the alignment borders. The procedures related to land acquisition come under the purview of the government. For that, there is no need to seek special approval of the central government or the railway board, K-Rail said, through a Facebook post.