Kerala CM assures 4-time compensation for SilverLine project land acquisition

Kannur (Kerala) [India], March 22 : Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan said that the LDF government will implement the SilverLine project and assured that the state government would pay four times the prevailing market prices as compensation for acquiring land.
CM Vijayan, who came to Kannur to inaugurate the CPIM Puthur local committee office, said, "The LDF government will implement the SilverLine project. There are attempts to mislead people."
He further said that the project is for the future generation. "Now, there is only one trip from Kochi to Thiruvananthapuram. But after the SilverLine project is implemented, there would be innumerable trips," he added.
The CM also assured to pay four times the market price as compensation for the land acquisition. Vijayan said, "It is natural that people whose land is being acquired for the project will be disappointed. But I want to tell you that the government will pay four times the market price as compensation. We should not support such narrow-minded politics."
People from across Kerala are protesting against laying the survey stones for the SilverLine project for the past couple of days. The first major protest happened in Kottayam's Madampally on March 18.
Meanwhile, the opposition leaders also boycotted the proceeding of the Kerala Assembly and protested against the SilverLine project following the stir by locals in Madampally.
The 529-km SilverLine railway project will link Thiruvananthapuram in the south to Kasaragod in north Kerala, covering 11 districts through 11 stations. The journey between two stations is expected to take four hours, whereas it currently takes 12 hours to reach from one end to another.