The Semi High Speed  Silver Line Rail Project of the Government of Kerala which proposes to connect Kasaragod with Thiruvananthapuram in less than four hours suffered a major setback on Tuesday as the former Chief Engineer of Indian Railways Aloke Kumar Verma described it as an environmental and ecological disaster. Addressing media persons at Kochi on Tuesday, Verma who had conducted the Feasibility study of the project said that the consequences of implementing this rail line would be disastrous and irreversible for an ecologically fragile State like Kerala. “Though the Detailed Project Report states that the rail line would cost Rs 68,000 crore, it can never be completed even by spending three or four times of that money. It will take a minimum of 25 years to complete this project and would put the State to economic ruins,” said Verma.

He also said that the DPR which has been presented to the authorities was not a DPR at all. “It is a crazy report and has no authenticity in it. It has been found that 93 per cent of the land proposed to be acquired for the project is fragile and cannot withstand the impact of such trains,” said Verma.

K Sudhakaran, the KPCC President, while addressing the media on Tuesday evening said that the Congress would further intensify the agitation against the projct. “Our slogan is Save Kerala and dump K-Rail. If the authorities continue laying survey stones as part of the land acquisition, we will pull down and throw such survey stones in backwaters and the sea,” said Sudhakaran.He said that even hardcore CPI(M) members were against the project. “The women who staged demonstrations against the Rail project told me that though they were from the CPI(M), they were against this rail line. The State administration which is enthusiastic in acquiring the land for the rail is still silent about the compensation package,” said Sudhakaran.