RANT AND RAIL
THE WEEK|April 03, 2022
A highspeed rail connectivity project is dividing Kerala and invoking memories of Nandigram
CITHARA PAUL
RANT AND RAIL
A Nandigram is in the making in Kerala; or at least, efforts are on in that direction. If the 2007 agitation against a planned chemical hub in West Bengal’s Nandigram village ended up uprooting the left front from a state it had ruled for decades, the ongoing protests against a high-speed rail project called Silver Line are posing challenges to the CPI(M)-led Left Democratic Front government in Kerala.

The ₹60,000-crore Silver Line project, aka K-Rail, is the biggest infrastructure project in Kerala’s history. It envisages a 530km dedicated rail corridor linking Thiruvananthapuram in the south to Kasaragod in the north, which will enable trains to run at 200kmph and cover the distance in less than four hours. An attractive proposition, considering that it currently takes 12 hours to travel from Thiruvananthapuram to Kasaragod. The proposed corridor will pass through 11 districts, and there will be 12 stations.

The state government has begun the laying of survey stones to initiate the project’s social impact study, sparking protests across the state. People are preventing authorities from entering their property and laying the stones. Clashes have turned violent in some places.

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