Kerala high speed rail corridor – A dream coming true?

A brief background about Kerala

Kerala is a piece of heaven on earth (god's own country) for the tourists who visit the state either from within India itself or from abroad. It has plenty of natural resources in the form of water, comparatively pure air, forests, hills, mountains, rivers, lakes, back waters and the sea parallel to the entire length of the state with few ports along. The people are beautiful, intelligent and this is the only state in India which can boast of 100% literacy. People can communicate in Malayalam, Tamil, Hindi and English. For the services they may charge a bit more comparing to other places but is worth in terms of quality of services without any cheating.

Injustice to Kerala in infrastructure development

The transportation from and within Kerala is slightly poor compared to other states as the state was neglected due to its smallness in size and population comparing to other states of India. It is one of the smallest states. As to the density of population it may rank No 1 in India. Because of its smallness it has fewer number of Parliament members and their voices will be drowned in the crowd in Parliament and often gets neglected in many respects. A livid example is the Mullai Peiyar Dam. The Rivers and the dams are in Kerala State while the benefits are being given to Tamilnad state with peanuts like monetary compensations. The land and the dam is under the control of the Tamilnadu. Kerala had to go to the courts for getting justice. The cases are in the Supreme Court is in the final stage. We have to wait to know the outcome of the fate.

While almost all the states area having at least one Rail Zone, Kerala's entitlement has gone again to the Tamilnad in Salem Zone. Tamilnad is not willing even to attach some portions of the states rail lines to the Kerala Zone but wanted a zone in their own state with the Kerala lines coming under it. Even many of the trains starting or ending in Kerala are to pass through Tamilnad. The only exception is the Konkan Railway which is a coastal rail line. Hence the mass transport facilities are tardy in development. In the light of this situation it is a welcome factor to be able to have a mass transit system covering the 2 ends of the state which will facilitate people to commute the 2 points of 560 km within 2 hours time.

All party meeting for HSRC project

The chief Minister of Kerala Mr Oommen Chandy convened a meeting of all the political parties of Kerala to propose the project of the High Speed Rail Corridor (HSRC) connecting the capital city of the State Trivandrum at the Southern end and the Kasarkod Town at the Northern end involving a distance of about 580 km. The C M explained the salient features of the project to the leaders of all parties who attended the meeting. The Chief Minister(CM) informed the meeting that a preliminary feasibility survey was done by the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) and the estimated cost given by the DMRC for the project is Rs 1,18,050 crore (Rs 1.2 trillion). According to the survey the project is viable. There will be no problem financially and technically for the project. The meeting gave the approval to the project in principle and decided to entrust the preparation of the detailed project report of the 560 km HSRC to DMRC who had done the preliminary survey. For the implementation of the project a High Speed Rail Development Corporation is formed with the Additional Chief Secretary of the State Sri T Balakrishnan.

As the project requires around 550 hectares of land involving of eviction of about 45,000 families, the meeting decided to meet again to work out the modalities, compensation and rehabilitation packages etc and other matters related to the project. The C M has agreed to make available a report containing all the details involved in the project like the participants to the project, the loan arrangements, the interest rate to be paid for the loan, and the repayment sources etc to the leaders of all the parties.

Elevated rail track for HSRC

The rail track for the mass transit high speed rail corridor will be on an elevated level on pillars erected for the purpose. The track will be 13 meters wide. According to the report the project will require about 552 hectares of land. The project is expected to start in April, 2013. The HSRC will be fully functional by March 2020 as per the plan. If the project is completed as per the schedule this will be the first high speed rail transport system in the country.

Central Government interest in the HSRC project

The CM has taken up the project matter with the Central Government and has persuaded with the Prime Minister of the Country. The center has given the green signal for the exciting high speed rail corridor project and expressed its willingness to join the project as a joint venture project with the State Government and other suitable institutions. The Prime Minister's office has convened a high level meeting and the state was asked to prepare a detailed project report. The meeting was attended by the Principal Secretary of the P M Sri Pulok Chatterjee, Chief Secretary of Kerala Sri P Prabhakaran and the M D of Infrastructure of Kerala Ltd Sri T Balakrishnan. This meeting was in response to the plea of the Kerala C M to the P M for the support of the center to the Mega Project of Kerala State.

Other salient features of the HSRC project

Kerala high speed rail corridor – A dream coming true

Each train on the corridor will have 8 coaches. Out of these 6 coaches will be motorized and the there will be one trailer coach each at both ends of the trains. Each trip of the train will have a carrying capacity of about 820 passengers per trip.

The maximum speed possible under this High Speed Rail Corridor project is 350 km per hour. However, the speed on the track will be restricted to 300 km per hour.

The distance of 220 km between Trivandrum and Kochi can be covered by the train in about 45 minutes. Similarly the cities of Trivandrum and Kozhikode will be covered in about 75 minutes and will take about 100 minutes to reach Kannur and 115 minutes for covering the distance between Trivandrum and Kasarkod. If the project is extended up to Mangalore the train will cover the distance between Trivandrum and Mangalore in about 125 minutes. There will be 9 high speed rail stations on the route from Trivandrum to Kasarkod.

Partners and Finance for the HSRC project

The project will be a public – private partnership venture with the Kerala State Government, Central Government, The Indian Railways, and Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC).

The Japanese Bank for International Cooperation Agency has agreed to provide loan of the project at an interest rate of 1.5 per cent in principle. The repayment has to be in Yen currency. As per the project report this liability could easily be repaid on completion of the project.

Why HSRC instead of conventional projects?

If roads are to be made to have the mass rapid transport system the roads has to be around 70 to 80 meters wide to carry around 15,000 passengers per hour. The land requirement for this project will be enormous in the land starving state of Kerala. The availability of land in Kerala is very less as the density of population is very high in the entire state. Under the circumstance there is no possibility of such a project. The same principle applies to surface rail transit system too.

Other points connected with HSRC

The introduction of HSRC will benefit the commuters in Kerala to travel from point to point within the state at a much less time. It will boost the tourism in Kerala State as the tourists can cover the places with less time and easily.
The Green Signal for the HSRC project is immediately following the Kochi Metro Rail Project approval. The work for the Kochi Metro Rail has already started.

On coming to power in May, 2011 the UDF Government under Mr Oommen Chandy had come out with an ambitious development plan for Kerala with infrastructure development focus. It is for such reasons that the country has rated Oommen Chandy as the 3rd best Chief Minister of the Country.