Kerala govt plans to create two SPVs for SilverLine

18 Jan 2022 CW Team

The Kerala state government is planning to create two special purpose vehicles (SPV) for executing the Kerala Railway Development Corporation (KRDCL) project, executive summary of the SilverLine semi-high-speed railway project DPR.

One SPV will be responsible for the execution of the project and the other for land bank development past the station areas by further land acquisition. Generating a high non-ticketing revenue with the help of these extra land parcels will be the purpose of the SPV 2.

As per reports, the execution, operation, and maintenance will be done by the SPV K-Rail for the state and Central governments, independent from Indian Railways.

According to the document, the SPV K-Rail will execute the project and operate and maintain the network on behalf of the state and Central governments totally independent of the Indian Railways. For the purpose of value capturing and risk ring-fencing, the two SPVs are mandatory.

The SPV will be used for the generation of surplus funds via land bank development which can be further merged with the SPV project for the SilverLine project cash flow improvement. There is an aim of attaining 40% non-ticketing revenue. After which the state will be able to provide a subsidised ticket fare.

The extent of land acquisition past the stations for land bank creation and non-ticketing revenue has not been finalised by the corporation.

According to the proposed alignment, approximately 33% of land comes under municipal and corporation areas. This will give more scope to the corporation for land bank creation and non-ticketing revenue in the urban areas.

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