Kerala: Cong Suggests Town To Town Flight Service Amid Protests Against Silver Line Rail Project

This project can be named as either 'Fly Kerala' or 'Air Kerala' and can be implemented at a cost of Rs 1,000 crore, Sudhakaran said

New Delhi: Amid protests against the Kerala government’s Silver Line rail corridor project, Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) president K Sudhakaran came up with a proposal to resolve the issue without affecting the rehabilitation of people.

While addressing the media in Kannur on Sunday, Sudhakaran said that instead of a rail corridor, a town to town flight service is a more feasible option as that would neither require land acquisition nor affect rehabilitation.   

The rail project to be undertaken at a budget of Rs 1,15,000 crore has been witnessing protests with several travellers like Prof R.V.G. Menon, K.P. Kannan, and many others voicing their concern.

Sudhakaran said that instead of train, a flight service can be planned like the town to town bus service by the Kerala State Road Transport (KSRTC).

If properly planned, in Kerala, having Kannur, Kozhikode, Kochi, and Thiruvananthapuram airports, a person can reach from the northern part of Kannur to the southern tip of Thiruvanthapuram in a span of three hours by covering all the airports, he said, adding that this can be named as either 'Fly Kerala' or 'Air Kerala' and can be implemented at a cost of Rs 1,000 crore.

Sudhakaran also said that flights can be taken on rent and this can be successfully implemented without anyone losing their land and with a less time span.

However, the CPI-M and the Left Front have not yet responded to the suggestion put forward by the KPCC chief.

Notably, the opposition Congress-UDF and BJP had said that they won't allow the Marxist Party government to implement the Silver Line project and would extend all support to the common people who have been staging protests across the state.

Leader of Opposition VD Satheesan said that the UDF has taken over the anti-Silver Line protest and would continue to remove the survey stones being laid by the authorities as part of the implementation of the project.

Reacting to the protests, chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan on Saturday said that the demonstrations were against the development of the state and that none of the projects announced by the Left government would be rolled back.