New alignment, cost estimate for high-speed rail; Tvm-Kannur fare at Rs 780

Malappuram: 'Metroman' E Sreedharan on Tuesday unveiled a revised plan for the proposed Kerala High Speed Rail (KSHR) project, with a new alignment and a significantly lower estimate of Rs 54,000 crore as against his earlier projection of Rs 86,000 crore.Sreedharan told reporters at DMRC office in Ponnani that the Thiruvananthapuram-Kannur high-speed rail would cover 465 km in 3 hours and 20 minutes. The proposed fare from Thiruvananthapuram to Kannur is Rs 780, comparable to AC chair car fares of Southern Railway and lower than the KSRTC AC bus fares.
The project envisages 20 stations, including two terminal stations. The revised alignment will begin in Thiruvananthapuram Central, pass through Thiruvananthapuram airport, Varkala, Kollam, Kottarakara, Pathanamthitta, Thiruvalla, Kottayam, Vaikom, Ernakulam Bypass, Nedumbassery airport, Thrissur, Pattambi, Malappuram, Karipur airport, Kozhikode, Koyilandy, Vadakara, Thalassery and terminate in Kannur.The KHSR will run on standard gauge with no physical integration with the existing broad gauge network of Southern Railway. Nearly 445 km of the corridor will be elevated, while 20 km will run underground. "The advantage of the standard gauge design is that axle loads will be only 16 tonnes, as against 25 tonnes of broad gauge. This will make the elevated structures very light and sleek, apart from saving in cost by over 20%," he said.Sreedharan said the design speed (the maximum, safe, and continuous speed for which a road or highway is designed) would be 200 kmph, while the maximum operating speed would be 180 kmph. The average commercial speed, allowing for acceleration, deceleration and station stoppages, will be 140 kmph.Each train will have eight coaches with a total seating capacity of 560, all configured as premium AC chair cars. Initially, trains will run at intervals of 30 minutes during peak hours and one hour during non-peak hours. At 80% occupancy, the system is expected to carry 45,000 passengers daily. The capacity can be scaled up to over 5 lakh passengers per day by incorporating 12 coaches and reducing the service interval to 5 minutes.Sreedharan said the corridor would function as a green project, powered entirely by solar farms set up along a 20-metre-wide land strip to be acquired. No land acquisition will be required for underground stretches. After construction, part of the acquired land can be leased back to original owners for cultivation or grazing, while about 50% will be retained for solar installations. The project will be executed by a special purpose vehicle (SPV), a joint venture between the Union and state govts, with equity participation in the ratio of 51:49.He said the project cost was estimated at Rs 54,000 crore as against the K-Rail estimate of Rs 63,941 crore. Assuming a construction period of 5 years and 2% yearly inflation, the completion cost will be Rs 56,500 crore.Funding will follow the Konkan Railway Corporation model. About 70% of the completion cost will be shared by the Centre and state in a 51:49 ratio, with the remaining 30% raised through debt or bonds. Based on current estimates, the Centre's share will be around Rs 20,171 crore and the state's Rs 19,380 crore, translating into annual contributions of about Rs 4,034 crore and Rs 3,876 crore respectively over 5 years. In the second phase, the line can be extended from Kannur to Kasaragod, Kozhikode to Kalpetta and Pattambi to Palakkad, etc, he said.