Nod for land acquisition for SilverLine

The Cabinet has given the nod for commencing acquisition of 1,383 hectares of land needed for the ambitious 529.45-km semi-high speed rail ‘SilverLine’ from Kochuveli to Kasaragod.

The Cabinet, presided over by Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan on Wednesday, also decided to give the administrative sanction to get ₹2,100 crore from the Kerala Infrastructure Investment Fund Board (KIIFB) as the State share for land acquisition.

The path has been cleared for the Revenue Department to issue notification and for setting up Land Acquisition Cells for acquiring land. The Cabinet decision comes amidst the NITI Aayog, Department of Expenditure, and Ministry of Railways, giving nod to Kerala Rail Development Corporation Ltd (K-rail) to mobilise funds from multilateral and bilateral agencies.

Already ADB, AIIB and JICA had informally confirmed their willingness to provide the loan for the SilverLine estimated to cost ₹63,941 crore as per current estimates. Housing and Urban Development Corporation (HUDCO) has already sanctioned a loan of ₹3,000 crore for land acquisition.

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