Semi High-Speed Rail Line: Aerial survey completed

The aerial survey to identify alignment of Kerala's Thiruvananthapuram-Kasaragod semi-high-speed railway project that is expected to ease traffic congestion on roads, has been successfully completed.

The survey, which began on December 31, was for the entire 532 km stretch up to Thiruvananthapuram, marking the first vital step before commencing the work of the project, named Silver Line, which will reduce end-to-end travel time across the state to four hours.

The first day of the survey, which was completed in Thiruvananthapuram on Sunday, was from Kannur to Kasaragod, a press release said.

LiDAR (Light Detection and Ranging) aerial remote sensing method was used for the survey, conducted on a Partenavia P68 series aircraft that took off from Kannur International Airport (KIAL).

The survey was carried out by Hyderabad-based GeoKno India Pvt. Ltd., which had also conducted LiDAR survey for the Mumbai-Ahmedabad bullet train project.

A joint venture of the Kerala government and the Ministry of Railways, the project had obtained the in-principle approval of the Centre on December 17.

The Civil Aviation Director General, and the Ministry of Defence had given clearance for the one-week-long survey, followed by the green signal from the Railway Ministry.

According to the release, the special permission of the Ministry of Defence was required since the aircraft has to fly over highly-sensitive security zones, and it is also mandatory that Indian pilots should be assigned for duty.

V Ajith Kumar, Managing Director, Kerala Rail Development Corporation Ltd, the implementing agency of the project, also called K-Rail, said since the survey has been completed, this will enable it to prepare a detailed project report (DPR) and launch the final location survey soon.

K-Rail is a joint venture by the State government and the Railway Ministry.

From Kasaragod to Tirur the Silver Line will run parallel to the existing railway track, while from Tirur to Thiruvananthapuram, the line will pass separately from the existing railway line since that stretch has a large number of curves that hamper speed.

The SHSR corridor is expected to reduce congestion and pollution on the roads, improve safety and considerably save huge cost resulting from the dependence on imported oil, the release said.

The airports at Thiruvananthapuram and Kochi will be connected with the SHSR.

It will have 10 stations and a proposal to build short-distance feeder links to connect to other stations too is also on the cards, the release added.