IMPLEMENTATION OF SILVERLINE (SEMI HIGH SPEED RAIL) FROM THIRVANANTHAPURAM TO KASARAGOD

Abstract

n recent decades, India's rapid economic growth has resulted in an increase in the amount of people and products transported across the country. Dedicated Freight Corridors (DFC) are being built to convey freight from Delhi to Mumbai and Kolkata in order to address the increased demand for commodities transportation. In December 2009, the Ministry of Railways of the Government of India released the "Indian Railway Vision 2020," which intends to renovate current conventional lines, increase capacity, and create high-speed railway lines for faster and improved passenger transportation. India currently lacks a high-speed rail (HSR) corridor that meets international requirements. The Vande Bharat Express, which runs between New Delhi and Varanasi and has an operational speed of 160 km/h and an average speed of 100 km/h, is currently India's fastest train. Kerala State, which has one of the highest population densities in the country, India, has 205545.62 km of roads (3.49% of India's total) whichtranslates to about 615.5 km of roadper lakh population. The road traffic has been growing at a rate of 10 to 11%, whereas Road length growth has been negligible. This has resulted in great increase in roadcongestion. Thiruvananthapuram, Kochi, Kozhikode, and Kannur all have international airports that connect the state to the rest of the country and the rest of the world. A total of 1588 km rail line with nearly 200 Railway stations connects all major towns and cities of Kerala except in highland districts of Idukki and Wayanad. Existing railway and road networks in the state are not amenable to faster travel. Averagespeed on road and by trains in the State is among the lowest of all regions of the country.