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Detractors of SilverLine, the semi-high-speed rail project, are of the opinion that the project will not benefit the common man as they will not be able to afford a charge of ₹3.9 per km. A journey on SilverLine on the Thiruvananthapuram-Kasaragod stretch is expected to cost around ₹2,000. However, a car passenger who travels on the national highway stretch that runs parallel to the proposed SilverLine will pass through 10 or 11 toll booths and will have to pay around ₹1,500 as toll alone, apart from the fuel expenses.
According to a senior Transport department officer, national highway four-lane works to the tune of ₹1.31 lakh crore, including cost of civil works and land acquisition, are under way in the State.
Once the works are completed, there would be 32 toll booths on the Kasaragod-Thiruvananthapuram stretch. Of these, seven are functional now. An average of ₹120 would be charged on a vehicle in each toll booth and a commuter will have to shell out around ₹3,800 as toll to reach the State capital from Kasaragod. A senior National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) official told The Hindu that the number of toll booths might go up as there would be a toll booth in every 60 km.
GPS to track toll
According to NHAI figures, works are in progress on 1,720.62-km-long stretches in Kerala, which will cost ₹1,31,558.89 crore on completion. “The cost of civil works, land acquisition, commercial interest rate of Indian banks, and margin of the developer company would be retrieved from those who use the national highway. The Centre is also planning to introduce a GPS-based toll tracking system, which would allow the operator to deduct the toll from the bank account of the vehicle owner based on the distance covered along the NH. But it will take two to three years to implement the system,” he said.
Railway, be it existing lines or proposed semi-high-speed rail, would be much cheaper and convenient to cover the length of Kerala, according to K-Rail managing director V. Ajithkumar.
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