Current Status of the Angamali Erumeli Sabari Rail Project
ANGAMALI ERUMELI SABARI RAIL PROJECT
GOVERNMENT OF INDIA
MINISTRY OF RAILWAYS
LOK SABHA
STARRED QUESTION NO. 22
TO BE ANSWERED ON 12.12.2018
ANGAMALI ERUMELI SABARI RAIL PROJECT
*22. ADV. JOICE GEORGE:
Will the Minister of RAILWAYS be pleased to state:
(a) the current status of the Angamali Erumeli Sabari Rail Project;
(b) whether the Government has received any proposal with revised estimate of the current allocation;
(c) if so, the details thereof;
(d) whether the Government is planning to approve estimate; and the revised
(e) if so, the details thereof?
ANSWER
MINISTER OF RAILWAYS AND COAL (SHRI PIYUSH GOYAL)
(a) to (e): A Statement is laid on the Table of the House.
STATEMENT REFERRED TO IN REPLY TO PARTS (a) TO (e) OF STARRED QUESTION NO. 22 BY ADV. JOICE GEORGE TO BE ANSWERED IN LOK SABHA ON 12.12.2018 REGARDING ANGAMALI ERUMELI SABARI RAIL PROJECT
(a) to (e): Angamali-Sabarimala new rail line (116 Km) was sanctioned in 1997-98 at a cost of Rs.550 crore. The 5 km section of this project was passing through Periyar Tiger Reserve Forest. On the request of State Government, the project was terminated at Erumeli due to reserve forest area.
Alignment of the project passes through three Districts i.e. Ernakulam, Idukki and Kottayam districts. Final location survey(FLS) for Angamali-Kaladi-Ramapuram section (70 Km) has been completed in 2002 and further survey in the Kottyayam district was stopped by local people in 2007 due to objections on alignment.
To resolve the issue, State Government proposed a revised alignment from Ramapuram to Erumeli (41 km). Revised alignment has been approved.
Even though Government of Kerala has approved alignment in 2013, local people are not permitting survey work in Kottayam District. FLS for Ramapuram-Erumeli (41 Km) has been taken up with police protection.
Further, land acquisition document for 253.77 hectare for New Line between Angamali-Kaladi-Ramapuram (70 km.) was submitted to State Government and only 24.4 hectare land has been acquired. Work has been taken up between Angamali-Kaladi-Perumbavoor (16 km) in the available land.
For this project, Government of Kerala had consented for sharing 50% of above project cost in November, 2015. However, the State Government requested in November, 2016 to execute this project with Railway funds.
Due to alignment issues and abnormal increase in land cost, the project cost has increased from Rs.550 crore to Rs.2815 crore. Land Cost has been increased from Rs.22.82 crore (in original estimate) to Rs.965 crore. Due to increase in project cost on account of alignment issues and abnormal increase in land cost, State Government has been requested to continue to share 50% cost of the project.
Source: Loksabha
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