Kerala HC lifts stay order on land survey for K-Rail project

Lifting a stay order issued a single bench, a division bench of the Kerala High Court on Monday allowed the government to conduct the land survey for the semi high-speed rail corridor project, K-Rail. The division bench of Chief Justice S Manikumar and Justice Shaji P Chaly also nullified the order of the single bench that the Detailed Project Report of the ambitious project should be made available before the survey.
Last week, the government moved an appeal against the order of Justice Devan Ramachandran which stayed the survey for the Rs 63,491-crore project. The single bench had acted upon a bunch of petitions moved individuals whose lands were slated to be either surveyed or acquired for the project. The single bench had also noted that the DPR was prepared without conducting a physical survey.

The division bench, however, admitted the contention of the government that the survey is being held only for assessing the social impact of the project and hence it should be allowed to be conducted as per the Survey and Boundaries Act of Kerala.

The Additional Member (Works) of the Railway Board had submitted an affidavit in the high court in response to the state government appeal challenging the single bench directive which had stayed the survey and land acquisition proceedings for the ambitious project of the CPI(M) government.
The survey has been facing stiff opposition from the public in various parts of the state. Recently, the railways had raised serious concerns about the project. It had earlier this month told the high court that it is advisable that the proceedings of land acquisition for the K-Rail project be stopped at this stage, as even the feasibility of the present alignment has not been agreed to the Minry of Railways.
The proposed K-Rail, titled Silverline, is promoted the Kerala Rail Development Corporation Limited (KRDCL) which is a joint venture of the Kerala government and the Minry of Railways.