K-Rail DPR carries false data: disaster management expert

Thiruvananthapuram: The state government is pushing K-Rail project promising four-hour travel time between both ends of the state.

It looks like nothing can tear the government away from its semi-high speed rail corridor project.

However, at grassroots protests continue even as the government put out the Detailed Project Report (DPR).

Now an expert doubts the veracity of the data used for justifying the project, according to a report in The News Minute.

According to K G Thara, the former member of State Disaster Management Authority, there are several inconsistencies in the DPR.

Thara who previously headed Kerala's Disaster Management Centre reportedly found some questionable data in DPR.

Further, her findings reveal manipulation in some of the data used to endorse the project as well.

The DPR for the project was prepared by Systra, a multinational engineering and consulting group in the mobility sector based in France.

Thara told TNM she cross checked the sources where Systra had obtained the data. She found different data from those appeared in the DPR.

According to the DPR, the data has been sourced from a book published in 2011 on High Speed Rail Technology compiled by Gaurav Agarwal, Director (Efficiency and Research), Ministry of Railways.

The DPR says China has 19,369 kms of high speed railway route. The book, however, found only 6,652 kms of highway rails in China.

Where Agarwal's book reports only 100 kms rails in the Netherlands, the DPR has 1,200 kms. According to Thara it is unethical of Systra to do so with the DPR.

Thara also cross checked the data for road accidents in the state mentioned in the DPR.

The DPR claims that Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat and Rajasthan as having far less road accidents compared to Kerala. The DPR favours the rail project saying that railway accidents are less compared to road accidents.

But the Union Transport Ministry's 2018 data showed higher accident rates in UP, Gujarat than Kerala reported.

As for South India, Tamil Nadu reported highest accident case where Kerala and Karnataka are pegged at nearly same numbers, according to TNM report.

As per the DPR Kerala is among the states with highest vehicle density. Quoting the 2018 data, the report put Kerala's vehicle density at 361, while nationally it is 170. However, Thara found the national average was 210, far more than the report showed.

It was done so, according to her, to show Kerala has huge vehicle density.

Thara also points out the project is not environmental friendly as the government claims.

Raising embankment requires about 9 metres of digging, she said, adding that in some places digging could go anywhwere between 9 to 20 meters. This digging according to her could adversely affect groundwater table and all these could trigger landslides, according to TNM report.