in an open letter to the chief minister and the state government 37 concerned citizens comprising much respected academics activists and professionals have stated that the silverline project will spell disaster to kerala society in multiple ways according to the signatories the states fragile public finance and increasing ecological vulnerability are two areas of concern what dismays us beyond words is that the state government has come out with this fully debt funded foreign technology based independent rail system in a unilateral declaratory fashion without a muchneeded political consensus and public debate the letter says they said the government should declare a freeze on its decision to go ahead with this massive project until a diligent articulation of the priorities in the making of a new kerala is in place the government should come out with a white paper spelling out the state of affairs in the transport sector and discuss the problems and remedies in the assembly it should also explore all options in enhancing the existing railway system which is more costeffective than the currently proposed system the letter adds silverline will spell disaster for stateas members of a community of concerned citizens and development professionals we express our earnest apprehension that the proposed independent highspeed railway system called silverline will spell disaster to kerala society in multiple ways two areas of exceptional concern are 1 the state governments fragile public finance and 2 the increasing ecological vulnerability of the state the two devastating floods of 2018 and 2019 and the ongoing covid19 pandemic since early 2020 are already presenting scenarios of an existential crisis for which the entire society and the state have to stand in unison to protect the people and the environment this calls for reprioritizing our developmental agenda away from such massive construction projects as the proposed silverline what dismays us beyond words is that the government of kerala has come out with this fully debtfunded foreign technologybased independent rail system in a unilateral declaratory fashion without a muchneeded political consensus and public debate therefore we appeal to the chief minister to urgently take into account the following suggestions made in the spirit of inclusive democracy1 the government should declare a freeze on its decision to go ahead with this massive project until a diligent articulation of the priorities in the making of a new kerala is in place2 within this larger vision for a new kerala the government should come out with a white paper spelling out the state of affairs in the transportation system covering the existing five modes ie road rail air inland water and coastal waters the white paper should also spell out the relative emphasis in further developing the transport system taking into account factors like costeffectiveness environmental sustainability and the existing human settlement pattern3 while agreeing that the existing railway system in kerala needs more facilities and speed we would urge the government to rigorously explore all the options in enhancing the existing indian railway system in kerala