Title - ‘Plan of Sabari Rail through Kottayam district finalised’

The vexed issue of finalising the alignment for the ambitious Sabari rail project for the stretch passing through the Kottayam district has been sorted out.But the stand of the Railways that it was in no way responsible for the time and cost overrun and that the state should meet half of the escalated cost, over and above the original cost of Rs 517 crore, has put the state in a quandary. The revised cost of the project is Rs 1,556 crore.Transport-Power Minister Aryadan Mohammed told the Assembly in response to a calling attention motion by Saju Paul (CPM), that the land acquisition of 173.79 hectares on the basis of the alignment was over in Ernakulam district.The alignment has been drawn for the course in Idukki district, entailing a land acquisition of 48 hectares, after opting for overbridges and underpass at three spots on the Thodupuzha bypass, where cutting is needed.‘’The only hitch was the finalisation of the alignment through Kottayam district. The Chief Minister has convened a meet and all contentious issues have been sorted out. To fine tune the initiative, he will convene another meet shortly,’’ Aryadan Mohammed said.

‘’There is no doubt on the importance of the Sabari rail path, which was conceived in 1997-`98. It is true that the project was delayed for various reasons. Once completed, it will be a real asset for the state,’’ asserted the Minister, when Saju Paul pointed out that pilgrims more than the size of the state’s population are flowing every year to the hill-shrine of  Sabarimala and wondered why the state was remaining hesitant to invest in the Sabari rail project and create a Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV).

He also pointed out that the Sabari rail was not something which would  benefit a particular area or which would end up at Erumeli, but would  take a natural progression to Punalur and Thiruvananthapuram in the course of time and emerge as the state’s pride.

‘’The state cannot create an SPV since the project is piloted fully by the Railways. Our stand is that the Sabari project is an ongoing project and the Railways itself should meet the entire cost, irrespective of the increasing cost for completion,’’ said Aryadan, who is state minister in charge of the Railways.  ‘’The government can assist the project financially, but within its reach only,’’ clarified Finance Minister K M Mani.