Land acquisition for rail projects moves at snail’s pace in Kerala

Even as the Kerala government has been making sincere efforts to woo investors to Kerala by rolling out the red carpet and offering land at key strategic locations, including at Vizhinjam, the State’s rail infrastructure continues to move at a snail’s pace due to severe delays in land acquisition.

According to a reply in Parliament, Union Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said that although several infrastructure projects have been taken up in Kerala to enhance the capacity of the existing railway network, including field surveys and the preparation of detailed project reports (DPRs) for laying third and fourth railway lines parallel to the existing double tracks in key stretches, the execution of many key sanctioned infrastructure projects, both fully and partly located in the State, has been held up due to delays in land acquisition.