NEW DELHI: With Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan seeking Union Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw's time to discuss projects including the Sabari Railway, hill residents and Ayyappa devotees are expecting a green signal for the Sabari Railway says Hill Integrated Development Foundation (hilldef) General Secretary Aji B Ranni.

K Rail had revised the estimate of Sabari Railway again recently. He said the reason for the hill dwellers to expect a green signal is that the meeting comes at a time when the Southern Railway is about to submit this estimate to the Railway Board this week.

The Sabari Railway project, which was started two and a half decades ago, was allocated Rs 2000 crore by the state government and Rs 100 crore by the central government in the last budget. Some people came forward with a new skyway project costing Rs 13,000 crore in between. Their demand was for a railway line reaching up to Pampa.

Aji B Ranni demanded that the central government should decide whether to spend so much money on a project that will be useful only for three months in a year, or whether to implement the proposed Sabari railway project for the comprehensive development of the hilly area in six districts from Ernakulam to Thiruvananthapuram by fixing the alignment from Erumeli to Pampa.

He said that with the proposed Sabarimala airport also coming to fruition, it is hoped that the Chief Minister will ask the Railway Minister that Sabaripatha should not be abandoned and mentioned that Hilldef had earlier requested that the MPs under the leadership of the Chief Minister should meet the Prime Minister for this purpose. Aji said that the intervention of the special representative of the state government, KV Thomas, for various projects, including this, deserves appreciation.