THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The steps to acquire land for the semi-high-speed rail line will soon be initiated by the Kerala government. A meeting presided over by Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan on Thursday has taken a decision in this regard.

Procedures were initiated after the Railway ministry gave approval in-principal for the project.

A total of 1226 hectares of land is required for the project. Around 200 hectares of additional land under the ownership of Railway ministry near the new track, which lays parallel to the old track, will be used for the project.

The remaining land needs to be acquired through land acquisition.

The aerial and traffic survey for the project has been completed for the railway track which will be 523 kilometres long. A final alignment report will be available by March 2020 and the construction works will start soon after. The aim is to complete the project in 2024.

Trains running on the semi-high-speed track will clock speeds of 200 kilometres per hour. This would mean that a train from Thiruvananthapuram will reach Kochi in just one-and-a-half hours and Thiruvananthapuram to Kasaragod will only take four hours.

Kerala state government and Indian railways own an equal share in a company which has undertaken the Rs 66,000 crore project. Discussions to avail loan from German Bank (Deutsche Bank), Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) and Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) are progressing.

PWD minister G. Sudhakaran, Chief Secretary Tom Jose, Principal Secretary for Transport K. R. Jyothilal, Kerala Rail Development Corporation MD V. Ajith Kumar took part in the meeting.