Fresh hopes on rail link

Raising the hopes of those campaigning for the 90-km Kanhangad-Kaniyooru rail link, which is expected to reduced travel time between north Kerala and Bengaluru, Revenue Minister E. Chandrasekharan has promised to draw the State government’s attention to the need to realise the project.

During a meeting with the office-bearers of the Kanhangad Nagara Vikasana Samithi on Sunday, the Minister promised to impress upon Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan the need to include the project on the list of joint venture projects signed between the State government and the Union Railway Ministry.

He also assured the office-bearers to facilitate a meeting with Mr. Vijayan when he visits the district later this month to inaugurate the State convention of the pro-CPI(M) Kerala Gazetted Officers’ Association.

Not on joint venture list

The State had already earmarked ₹20 crore in the 2016 budget for the project and engineering and passenger traffic survey for it had been completed. However, the project did not find a place in the joint venture projects signed between the State and Railways in which the State expressed its readiness to shoulder 50% of the project cost. Landholders in the State have expressed their willingness to give land free of cost to realise the project, 45 km of which will pass through the State to the eastern border hill township of Panathur and the remaining through Karnataka.

The rail link will connect north Kerala to Kaniyooru station situated on the Mangaluru-Bengaluru rail line that passes through Sakaleshpur and Shravanabelagola to reach Bengaluru in around eight hours. At present, trains from Kannur through Mangaluru takes over 16 hours to reach Bengaluru.

If link became a reality, trains from north Kerala could be operated through the route skipping the circuitous Mangaluru, a samiti office-bearer told The Hindu.

The project assumes significance in the light of the proposed Thalassery-Mysuru rail line failing to get engineering feasibility due to the high construction cost and since the line passes through an ecologically fragile route.