Thiruvananthapuram, 12th December 2022: Chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan said in the house that claims about the Union Railway Ministry finding the detailed project report (DPR) of the SilverLine project incomplete, is rubbish.

He informed that the government had gone ahead with the preliminary works of the semi-high-speed rail project after receiving nods from the Finance and Railway Ministries.

On Monday, Union Minister of State for External Affairs, V Muraleedharan, had accused Vijayan of lying in the state Assembly that the union government had not informed about the SilverLine DPR being incomplete. Muraleedharan even released a letter claimed to have been sent by the union rail ministry.

It read, “…Sufficient details for technical feasibility are not available in the DPR. Therefore, KRDCL has been advised to provide detailed technical documents…”

Vijayan said in the assembly, “The project is still there despite hurdles created by the BJP and Congress. The project is not shelved and the Centre has not informed us that the detailed project report is incomplete”

“There were some talks in the Centre against approval for the project in view of the protests against it and therefore we decided to wait for their go ahead before proceeding any further with it. But like I have said earlier in the House, approval will have to be given for the project. If not now, then in the future.”

The chief minister also said that the government does not intend to withdraw cases registered against the anti-SilverLine protestors.

SilverLine is an ambitious project by the Kerala government. It aims to reduce travel time between Thiruvananthapuram and Kasaragod in Kerala to less than 4 hours against 12 to 14 hours currently. It includes a semi-high speed rail corridor that would cover a 530 Km stretch from Thiruvananthapuram to Kasaragod, developed by K-Rail. K-Rail is a joint venture by the government of Kerala and the railway ministry.