Can’t fund Kerala’s high speed link: railway ministry
Ministry says project technically feasible but it doesn’t have sufficient funds to finance the project
Bangalore: A proposal by the Kerala government to establish a high-speed railway link in the state, extending till Mangalore in Karnataka, has received lukewarm response from the railway ministry, as it does not have sufficient funds to finance the project.
The ministry, in a comment to the proposal that has been reviewed by Mint, said that it was not in a position to give any financial commitment to the project from its resources.
At a discussion with the Prime Minister’s Office, the railways ministry said that while the project is technically feasible and the ministry fully supports the project, the Union government needs to make a separate allocation for this project from the budget in addition to the funding being provided by Kerala. The project is estimated to cost between ₹ 5,000 crore and ₹ 6,000 crore, depending on how far the line is extended.
According to the proposal, the Kerala government has proposed a high-speed rail link between Thiruvananthapuram and Kasargod, a distance of 526km. The pre-feasibility report prepared by Delhi Metro Rail Corp. Ltd (DMRCL) recommended that the project should be extended by another 42km to Mangalore as the projected traffic load tapered to a thin margin between Kozhikode and Kasargod. The Karnataka government further suggested that this could be extended up to Udupi near Mangalore owing to its status as a popular religious destination.
A Kerala government official, attending a meeting of chief ministers in South India with the Union home minister in Bangalore last week, said the government still needed to work out the financial details. The official declined to be identified. “We are currently in discussions with the railways ministry as well as the department of economic affairs," he said, requesting anonymity.
The official said it was was getting harder to expand Kerala’s roads any further to provide for additional mobility. “The high-speed rail link will actually take up lesser space, while enabling us to transport higher volumes of passengers," he said.
While construction will be taken up by Indian Railways, the pre-feasibility report suggests that the Indian railways could award the operations and maintenance part to a private partner. “Indian Railways has already shown interest to develop the high-speed railway lines on PPP (private-public partnership) basis," the report notes.
The Kerala project is targeting commuters who would shift from travelling by air. “In this scenario, a pricing strategy in the overall context of the project holds a crucial decision for influencing these commuters to adopt high-speed rail service in place of their current air and rail modes," the study said. Currently, the 968km high-speed rail service in China charges fares between ₹ 3,200 to ₹ 5,200.
Kerala is also hoping to mop up substantial non-operational revenue from advertisements and real estate developments at stations. For instance, Delhi metro garners nearly 30% of its revenue from these sources, the report said.
The inability of the railways ministry to fund the high-speed project puts a question mark to the economic viability of similar projects, including the six regional high-speed rail projects proposed by the ministry.
P. Sreekantiah, a retired engineer and railways consultant from Bangalore, said the long-term survival of Indian Railways depends on the implementation of these projects, as they yield substantially higher revenues compared with its current operations. A report by the Comptroller and Auditor General tabled in May this year found the railways is facing a severe financial crunch and accumulated funds had eroded by 93%. A panel led by Sam Pitroda looking to modernize the Indian Railways found that the railways “suffers from a severe and chronic under-investment in railway infrastructure". As much as ₹ 5.6 trillion would be required to modernize the railways in the next five years, the Pitroda panel said.
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