The LDF government conceived the Silver Line project with the good intention of having a high-speed train for Kerala. But it faced strong opposition. The people were mainly against the forcible installation of survey stones as part of land acquisition. With that, the government stopped the stone pelting. Moreover, the Silver Line project is yet to receive the Central Railway Board's approval. Kerala cannot implement the Silver Line project without obtaining permission. There are reports that it is not possible to get the approval of the central government. It will also be difficult to get foreign loans as it is not environmentally friendly. In short, it is not possible to implement the Silver Line that the state government wants to have. It is in this context that the importance of the high-speed alternative path proposed by E Sreedharan becomes relevant.

It is almost certain that the massive acceptance of Vande Bharat will make the high speed rail project a success in Kerala. The biggest plus point is that Sreedharan's proposed expressway will only take up 20 percent of the land it was intended to take up for the Silver Line. A report on the project was prepared by Sreedharan, who is also the former head of DMRC, and submitted to Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan through Kerala's representative in Delhi, KV Thomas. If the Silver Line does not happen, another similar project is enough to fulfill the demand of Kerala. An alternative expressway would be a combination of an underground and an elevated road. In the first phase, a semi-speed railway is planned from Thiruvananthapuram to Kannur which takes three hours. Later it can be upgraded as a high speed rail. Then three and a half hours will be reduced to an hour and a half. It is estimated to cost Rs.1 lakh crore. Rs 65,000 crore was stated as the estimate by the government for the Silver Line.

To think that the proposed alternative plan is very suitable for Kerala. Sreedharan has also informed that if the construction is handed over to DMRC, he will forget politics and supervise this project. If Sreedharan is entrusted with the project, the people of Kerala will not fail to welcome it. Sreedharan states that there will be no obstacle to get central approval for this project. It is expected that the government will consider the proposal of an alternative expressway in case the Silverline is derailed.