Kerala: High speed railway corridor to get central aid

Thiruvananthapuram, Jan 21: India's first high-speed railway corridor project, which will soon link the God's own country Keraka to Managalore in the neighbouring Karnataka state has received a green siganl from the central government for a financial assistance into the proposed project.

The development has come after a high-level meeting convened at the Prime Minister's Office in Delhi, where Vinay Mittal, chairman, Railway Board expressed his interest to take up the project as a joint-venture between the state and the centre with Japanese funding.

Pulok Chatterjee, Principal Secretary to the Prime Minister, Kerala Chief Secretary P Prabhakaran and Managing Director of Infrastructure Kerala Ltd T Balakrishnan were also present in the crucial meeting.

Earlier, the hi-speed railway corridor was planned to develop as a a PPP (public-private partnership) project. The upcoming 580-km track will reduce end-to-end running time to two to three hours and is expected to cost Rs one lakh crore.

OneIndia News