Kerala’s 577 km semi high-speed train service from Thiruvananthapuram to Kasaragod is reportedly facing major procedural, technological and financial hurdles.
French consultancy firm Systra conducted a pre-feasibility study and deemed the Rs 56,443-crore plan as “technologically unviable and a capital-intensive project”.
The Kerala Rail Development Corporation Ltd (KRDCL), a joint venture project between the Ministry of Railways and the Kerala government, has authorised a capital of Rs 100 crore, and will be taking up the project on a cost-sharing basis.
A former Indian Railways Service Engineer, Alok Kumar Verma has questioned the pre-feasibility report that used Google Earth and other satellite data. He has reportedly mentioned that the project is “designed to fail”.
Earlier, India’s ‘Metro Man’ E. Sreedharan also said the project was economically unviable.
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