1,142 people to be affected by rail line doubling: SIA study

Thiruvananthapuram: The final report of social impact assessment (SIA) study for land acquisition for Thiruvananthapuram–Nemom railway line doubling and construction of terminal has been published by the district administration.
An area of 14.8067 hectares has been demarcated for this project. The land to be acquired is spread over 759 survey numbers in four villages in Thiruvananthapuram district – Thycaud, Thirumala, Nemom and Pallichal.
The Centre for Management, which has been entrusted with the SIA study by the district administration in August, 2019, submitted the report recently. The study had identified a total of 1,142 people who will be affected due to land acquisition for the project. As per the study, the major social impact will be the displacement of families residing in the area.
In the public hearing conducted as part of the SIA study in Thycaud, Thirumala, Nemom and Pallichal areas, people expressed their concerns regarding access to road and fair compensation. Many of the residents claimed that they will lose large parcels of land which will make remaining land not suitable even to build a house or any other work. They suggested that railways should take over their entire property and the government should give fair compensation. Some of the residents said that their house will be lost in the project and enquired about alternative arrangement. Traders expressed their concern on losing their source of income from the shops located in the area demarcated for the project. Some of the residents requested authorities to relocate them in the nearby area.
Concerns regarding access through for service road beside the project area, job opportunities in the project, permit to construct house near railway property and compensation to families staying in purampoke land were raised in the public hearing.
The study has proposed compensation for the landowners as per the Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act and Resettlement and Rehabilitation package for land acquisition to mitigate the social impact of the proposed land acquisition.
On the necessity of the project, the SIA study states that the presence of a double track is a prerequisite for introducing block signalling that can help to increase speed of trains and reduce transit time. The existing track capacity utilization of this line is over 100 percent and the existing single line is saturated, leading to congestion and slow movement of trains.
The railway authorities had unveiled a detailed development plan for Nemom railway station. For realizing the future plans, doubling becomes necessary. Nemom and Kochuveli would be developed as two sub-stations of Thiruvananthapuram Central so that the congestion in Central station can be addressed. There had also been a proposal for launching a coaching terminal at Rs 118.5 crore, which was later put on hold.