The ₹63,794-crore SilverLine semi-high-speed railway project will prove a death knell for Kerala, by further increasing the ‘urban sprawl’ in the State known for its high rate of urbanisation, said May Mathew, who retired as Senior Town Planner from the Greater Cochin Development Authority (GCDA) and is the founder trustee of the city-based Centre for Environmental Efficiency.
This will in turn affect whatever little is available of agricultural lands and even considerable forest cover, she said, adding that what the State needed now was a boost to life in its cities. “The State urbanisation report acknowledges that cities must become smart and vibrant. But the urban sprawl has resulted in people of the State and agriculture competing with each other, unlike the situation a few decades ago when they complemented each other due to limited consumption patterns of our forefathers,” Ms. Mathew said.
The semi-high-speed rail project is now being cited as a panacea for the State’s problems. But the project will result in prominent cities like Kochi, Thiruvananthapuram, and Kozhikode losing out economically and otherwise to smaller cities and towns, apart from those like Coimbatore, Madurai, Tirunelveli, and Mangaluru in neighbouring States. They will flourish at Kerala’s cost. It will result in these cities losing their multiplying effect to their counterparts outside the State, affecting tax collection as well, she observed.
On the global trend to build sustainable cities where travel time is limited to between 10 and 15 minutes, Ms. Mathew, an urban planner, said cities worldwide were creating space for secure, well-maintained cycle tracks and footpaths. “For instance, Seoul is striving to limit the average travel time within the city to 10 minutes. The opinions and concerns of the urban planning department and members of the public have not been taken into account while going ahead with the SilverLine project. In addition, the State cannot afford any more external debt,” she said.
Sources in K-Rail, the agency that spearheads the SilverLine project, wondered why critics of the project had little complaints against large-scale national highway (NH) development work taking place in the State and a new NH proposed east of MC Road. “Highway projects need much more raw materials than the proposed rail corridor and will in turn increase the urban sprawl. Highways will further hasten purchase of vehicles, whose number doubled in the State during the past decade, leading to worsening of carbon emissions and accidents due to driver fatigue, rash driving, and other factors,” they said.
On the contrary, SilverLine will bring about net-zero emissions and provide a safe mode of commute to people employed in cities while preferring to live in their home districts, the sources added.
