New Delhi: Railways Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw has asked Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan to ensure that steps are taken to speed up the land acquisition process in the state so that the execution of railway infrastructure projects, presently held up for this reason, can go forward.
In a letter to Vijayan, Vaishnaw pointed out that currently railway infrastructure projects costing Rs 12,350 crore are in progress in Kerala and the highest-ever budget outlay of Rs 3,011 crores has been allotted for the financial year 2024-25. However, most of the railway projects in Kerala are not progressing due to the non-availability of requisite land, he noted.
“Railways had initiated efforts for acquisition of land for most of the sanctioned railway projects but could not succeed in acquiring land. Despite making a payment of more than Rs 2,100 crore to the government of Kerala for the required land of 470 hectares, only 64 hectares of land could be acquired The support of the government of Kerala is essentially required in the matter,” he said.
“In view of this, I would request you to issue suitable instructions to the concerned officers to expedite the process of land acquisition so that the execution of the projects can be taken up,” the Union Minister wrote.
He also points out that the Centre has given a high priority to the expansion of the railway network to provide improved rail facilities as well as socio-economic growth across the country and this will add immensely to the development of Kerala.
The land acquisition has got stuck in the Thiruvananthapuram-Kanyakumari, Ernakulam-Kumbalam, and the Kumbalam-Turavur doubling works and Angamali-Sabarimala new line project.
For the above projects, while the requirement of land needed is 470 hectares, just around 14 per cent of the land needed has been acquired while the state government has been given Rs 2,104 crore funding.
–IANS