Thiruvananthapuram, March 9 With the BJP's Kerala unit deciding to launch its agitation against Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan's proposed dream project, K-Rail (Silverline), 'metroman' E. Sreedharan has been nominated to head the series of protests that have been planned.
Expressing his thoughts, the veteran, who had contested as a BJP candidate in the April 2021 assembly polls from Palakkad and lost, said this project, if implemented, will become an environmental disaster for Kerala.
The pet project of Vijayan, estimated to cost Rs 63,940 crore, envisages a 529.45 km corridor connecting Thiruvananthapuram to Kasaragod and a high-speed train will cover this distance in around four hours. However, the NITI Aayog says it might cost Rs 1.24 lakh crore and is expected to be completed in 2025 according to the detailed project report.
Sreedharan went on to pick holes in the detailed project report of the K-Rail, saying that all along the sides of the proposed track, an eight-feet-high wall, which will cost Rs 8 crore for one kilometre, has to be constructed, and there has to be a mesh on its top, but this not mentioned in the DPR.
He further pointed out that there is no mention of the flyovers and subways in the DPR.
The high power meeting that concluded at Alappuzha consisted all the top brass of the BJP and decided that a series of protests against this project will take place across the state over four days.
The Congress has already started their protests against this, even as Vijayan is determined that, come what may, he and his government will go forward with the project and has slammed both opposition parties of playing spoilsport when a major development project which will change the face of the state is being planned.
There have been protests cross the state for the past many days wherever the K-Rail officials reached to lay the marking stones and on Wednesday also, it was the same.
In a related development, the children of yesteryear's top CPI leaders like C. Achutha Menon, M.N. Govindan Nair, Unni Raja, to name a few, have decided to express their displeasure against this project and will give a letter to CPI state Secretary Kanam Rajendran.
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