Ernakulam collector sends Sabari rail land acquisition proposal to State

In what could be a significant step relating to the Angamaly-Sabari rail project, the Ernakulam district administration has sent to the State government a proposal for acquiring the required land for the much-delayed infrastructure plan.

The district collector sent the proposal to the Transport department seeking administrative sanction on Thursday, a day after receiving the requisition details from the Railways. The requisition and the proposal comprise the survey numbers of the land to be acquired for the project, official sources said.

It is still not clear if there is any difference in the alignment of the project from the existing one. “It will be known only after receiving the alignment sketch,” an official source said.

The land acquisition procedures, including reopening the offices for the purpose, can be started once the district administration receives the administrative sanction, a top official said. The Transport department has already received detailed land acquisition proposals from Kottayam and Idukki, the other two districts covering the project, it is learnt.

The latest developments come amid the persisting uncertainty over the project caused by alleged procedural confusions and lack of clarity on funding.

While the State government has been demanding that the Railways defreeze the project so that it can expedite the land acquisition procedures the Railways has repeatedly requested the former to start land acquisition proceedings so that the project can be defrozen by the Ministry of Railways.

The Railways has also reportedly requested the State to give ‘clear acceptance’ to share 50% of the cost instead of ‘conditional acceptance.’

A decision was yet to be made on the State’s demand that the debt incurred by the Kerala Infrastructure Investment Fund Board by financing the project be fully exempted from the State’s borrowing limit.

The Central Action Council, a federation of forums comprising land owners whose properties have been stuck in the project since years, has, meanwhile, placed a request to Union Minister of State George Kurien to press for an allocation of ₹800 crore for the project in the upcoming Union Budget for 2026-27.