T’puram: Union railway minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said that the construction of 106 road overbridges to replace level crossings in Kerala was delayed because of the state govt. In a written reply in Rajya Sabha, Vaishnaw said that these projects were held up because of delays in land acquisition, finalization of alignment, protests and court cases, and contractor appointments.
Around 38 overbridges or subways were delayed due to land acquisition, 63 due to finalization of alignment by the state govt, two due to protests or court cases, and three due to an agency yet to be fixed, he added. As of Jan 2026, 139 road overbridges or subways across railway tracks were sanctioned at a cost of Rs 4,932 crore in the state and were at various stages of planning and execution. Of this, 107 projects worth around Rs 4,000 crore were done on cost-sharing basis with the state govt, while 32 projects worth Rs 876 crore were done by the Railways. Vaishnaw also added said that several measures were taken to expedite the progress of the projects, such as joint surveys with the state govt or road-owning authority before finalizing the general arrangement drawing (GAD) to ensure smooth execution; periodic meetings of railway and state govt officials to resolve issues related to the projects; and standardization of superstructure drawings for various combinations of span, skewness and width of road on the railway portion to avoid delays during design approval. He also said that overbridge or subway work was planned to be executed on a single-entity basis by the railway wherever possible. He said that completion and commissioning of the work depended on various factors, such as cooperation of state govts in giving consent for closure of level crossings, fixing of approach alignment, approval of the GA, land acquisition, removal of encroachment, shifting of infringing utilities, statutory clearances from various authorities, the law and order situation in the area of the project or work sites, and the duration of the working season in a year for the particular project or area due to climatic conditions. “All these factors affect the completion time of the projects,” Vaishnaw said. Removal of level crossings will improve the safety and speed of trains, he added.
