Ahead of the signing of the final agreement for the implementation of the Sabari railway project to provide a dedicated railway line to Sabarimala, Southern Railway has insisted on a double line on the proposed route from Angamaly and connecting up to Pampa instead of Erumely. Consequently, the Railways has revised the estimated project cost to around Rs 9,300 crore, which took the state administration by surprise.

The new instruction came at a time when the state is gearing up to sign a tripartite agreement involving the state government, the railway ministry and the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to implement the project. The agreement will ensure that the RBI will pay Kerala’s share to the railway ministry if the state does not pay its share of the project cost on time and deduct the amount from the central share of aid to Kerala for various schemes.

The letter written by the Chief Administrative Officer of Southern Railway insisted on the double line and pointed out that there has been an increase in pilgrims visiting the temple.

The state’s share

Sources in the state government said The Hindu that the new direction was part of delaying the project and thereby pitching the Chengannur-Pampa road to the Sabarimala temple, the brainchild of technocrat E. Sreedharan. Kerala had agreed to bear 50% of the project cost, which was estimated at Rs 3,810.69 crore, according to the revised detailed project report (DPR). Proposing a double line along the route will double Kerala’s share, roughly to Rs 4,000 crore.

Large increase unlikely

Regarding the expected increase in pilgrims to Sabarimala, the government officials claimed that the daily footfall in Sabarimala was around one lakh and of this, 50 to 60% used the road to reach the hill. If the trend of pilgrim flows to the temple in the previous years was taken into account, the number was unlikely to increase significantly in the near future. “Therefore, we may not have to accommodate a sharp increase in the number of pilgrims in the near future,” officials said.

The original proposal by Indian Railways in 1997 for the Sabari line was to have a single line from Angamaly to Pampa initially. Due to opposition from the Forest Department, it was decided to terminate the line at Erumely. The State Government has no objection to extending the line up to Pampa if suitable terminal facilities are created at Pampa. The state also has no objections to sharing the project cost to extend the line to Pampa.

The Federation of Sabari Railway Action Council has alleged that the latest move by the Railways was aimed at sabotaging the project. Union officials wondered how a railway administrator could propose a doubling line and project cost without any survey or DPR when there was an established process for sanctioning new projects and doubling lines. The approval of the Railway Board and the Ministry of Finance was necessary for these.

Meeting today

Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan has called a meeting of various stakeholders on Tuesday to discuss the project.