The acquisition of 1,383 hectares of land for Silver Line, the semi-high-speed rail (SHRS) corridor from Kochuveli to Kasaragod, will get delayed with the Revenue Department sticking to the conventional mode of land acquisition.
The Revenue Department’s notification and administrative sanction for setting up land acquisition cells are mandatory for acquiring land for the 529.45-km railway lines and construction of 10 stations.
With Revenue Minister E. Chandrasekharan making his stance clear, the move to commence the groundwork for land acquisition within the period the Centre and the Railway Board process the detailed project report is unlikely unless Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan intervenes.
The Transport Department, the administrative department for the Silver Line, has proposed partial outsourcing of the land acquisition process instead of the conventional mode to save time. But the Revenue Department has opposed the move.
Mr. Chandrasekharan is already upset over the Public Works Department’s (PWD) ‘move’ to hand over the remaining land acquired for National Highway development for creating wayside amenities. Incidentally, the NH development and Silver Line projects are handled by Minister for Public Works G. Sudhakaran.
Final call
The Revenue Department is of the view that the final call wrests with it and that it will not permit outsourcing. The Minister has made it clear that the land acquisition, compensation and rehabilitation proceedings should be under the provisions of the Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act, 2013.
The row over land acquisition came up when the Administrative Department approached for sanction to set up acquisition cells in 10 districts.
A high-level meeting chaired by Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan in February had decided to issue notification for acquiring land for 10 stations for the third and fourth railway lines that will traverse through 11 districts, except Alappuzha, Idukki and Wayanad. For creating acquisition cells under District Collectors, 143 posts had to be created and this was ruled out by the Finance Department due to financial crunch and citing that the acquisition proceedings are of temporary nature.
The Finance Department has also sought opinion of the Revenue Department on partial outsourcing of the rail project and NH six-laning.
This is done by posting two to three key persons such as deputy collector, tahsildar and surveyor from the Revenue Department in the acquisition cells under the District Collector. The remaining works are handled by the outsourced agency.
