The Satheesan Government Discards The Controversial K-Rail Project |
The decision of the newly installed UDF government led by Chief Minister VD Satheesan in Kerala to scrap the ambitious K-Rail semi-high-speed train project is realistic and sensible.
Conceived as early as 2009 by the Left Front government, the planned rail system was later christened the Silverline from Thiruvananthapuram to Kasaragod, covering 529 km in four hours, with stops at 10 stations, including the Kochi airport.
Kerala’s need for efficient and fast transport cannot be overstated, both because it has a highly mobile population that frequently travels north-south and because many people work in towns away from where they live.
This pattern is confirmed by the massive response that two Vande Bharat trains connecting the state capital with Mangalore and Kasaragod........