Joint venture of State government and Ministry of Railways

Kerala Rail Development Corporation Ltd (KRDCL) is set to showcase the semi-high-speed rail (SHSR) corridor project before captains of industry and policymakers on the opening day of the global investors meet ASCEND KERALA-2020 here on Thursday.

The ₹66,405-crore Thiruvananthapuram-Kasaragod rail corridor, named Silver Line, will be one of the major projects to be presented at the two-day meet.

Silver Line, a project of K-Rail, a joint venture of the Kerala government and the Ministry of Railways, holds huge investment potential for those planning to invest in Kerala’s mega projects. The project has been cleared by the State Cabinet and also received in-principle approval of the Ministry of Railways which enables pre-investment activities, according to a communication.

Investment avenues

There are investment opportunities in transit-oriented developments; engineering, procurement, and construction contracts worth ₹38,000 crore for civil, electrical and system works; supply and operation of rail coaches, high-speed freight trains, tourist trains; renewal power generation of around 300 MW; power storage systems and the like. Opportunity also exists for any investor to directly invest in the project special purpose vehicle, the communication added.

KRDCL managing director V. Ajith Kumar will make the presentation at the session on ‘Mobility development and electric vehicles’.

Transport Minister A.K. Saseendran will preside over the session.

Trains running on Silver Line will be covering the 532 km end-to-end distance from Kochuveli on the outskirts of Thiruvananthapuram city to Kasaragod by four hours, which now takes around 12 hours.