Kerala: Congress suggests cheaper ‘fly in Kerala’ project as alternative to expensive K-Rail plan

As Kerala has been erupting over the installation of the survey stones to demarcate the land for the K-rail project, Congress in Kerala has come up with an alternative ‘fly in Kerala’ project instead of the Silverline K-rail plan proposed by the LDF government.

KPCC President K Sudhakaran has proposed setting up of a domestic air-connectivity network by spending only around Rs 1,000 crore, instead of the Silver Line project which would require at least Rs 1.3 lakh crore.

The 'Fly in Kerala' network could be established by making use of the existing four airports of Kerala and adding the Mangalore and Coimbatore airports that are close to Kerala. The state government could also acquire around ten mini aircraft and set up more airstrips, if required.

He urged the government to launch the service as similar to KSRTC. But, the government should not operate this company, said the senior Congress leader. “The government should promise to pay the rental of aircraft for the first three years. If the government can pay the full rent for the first year, two-third of the rent for the second year and one-third for the third year, companies would be interested in running it. In that case, the total cost to us would be ₹300 crore,” pointed out Sudhakaran.

In a video message, the Congress MP from Kannur said that by introducing more flights one can travel even faster and the project will be less expensive than K-Rail. From Mangalore to Thiruvananthapuram the fare can be fixed at Rs 2,000, to Ernakulam Rs 1,750, to Kozhikode Rs 1,500 and to Kannur Rs 1,250, he said.

The Silverline project was proposed with the claim that it can cut short the travel time from Thiruvananthapuram to Kasaragod to just four hours.

For reducing the ticket rates, the Congress leader recommended the introduction of a system where in one can buy tickets directly from airports instead of pre-booking them.

Reservation of tickets in advance should not be made mandatory, he said, adding that every one hour a flight has to be operated so that passengers would not be troubled even if they miss one. To avoid paying exorbitant ticket prices, a single rate should be fixed for a particular service.

If the airports are properly connected with regular flights, a passenger who starts from Mangalore by 7 am will be able to reach Thiruvananthapuram by 10.30 am. When more flights are operated, the person can reach the next nearest airport in half-an-hour, he said. The only challenge the project could face is ensuring last-mile connectivity — the travel to and from the airport, he said, adding that the model followed by Karnataka RTC can be adopted.

Karnataka RTC conducts services to Bengaluru airport from small towns on an hourly basis. Similarly, the authorities can deploy 'Fly in Kerala' feeder buses to the airports from city outskirts. In case of towns without an airport, Sudhakaran suggested sea planes. The entire project, the KPCC president said, would cost only Rs 1,000 crore.

This amount is not even a fraction of the interest on the amount that the government is planning to borrow from JICA for the Silverline project, pointed out the senior leader. “If Fly in Kerala is a failure, our total loss will be a maximum of Rs 1000 crore. In a worst-case scenario of the project winding up, we will get a piece of critical data: how many people really need to travel from Kasaragod to Thiruvananthapuramin in four hours,” underscored Sudhakaran.