📰 The road to peace runs through Tehran
The Iranian card could help India enhance its role in stabilising Afghanistan
•Even if an American military pullout from Afghanistan is on the cards, the U.S. will want to leave behind a stable country. And any peace settlement in Afghanistan will stand a better chance of staying on the rails if it is supported by regional powers. In other words, ties between Afghanistan and its neighbours, including Iran, will impact the security of southern and western Asia. Like India, Russia, China and the U.S., Iran would want to see a steady hand at the helm in Afghanistan. While lacking military influence, India can build on its good ties with the U.S. and Iran to secure Afghanistan.
Iranian continuity
•Iran is not a newcomer to regional diplomacy in Afghanistan. First and foremost, India should try to dissuade the U.S. from dealing with Iran, Russia and China as enemies. In fact, U.S. President Donald Trump’s perception of all three as foes is at odds with America’s earlier engagement with them to end its military campaign in Afghanistan. For instance, from 2014 to 2016, Washington and Moscow quietly arranged talks on the Afghan peace process. The meetings, known as the 6+1 group, included representatives from Afghanistan, China, India, Iran, Pakistan, Russia, and the U.S. The 6+1 process assumed that each of these countries was essential to the achievement of a political settlement in Afghanistan. Moreover, last November, the U.S. and the Taliban joined for the first time the Russia-hosted conference in the hope of promoting a negotiated solution to achieve peace and national reconciliation in Afghanistan.
•Regional powers could put their weight behind a negotiated settlement that will ensure Afghanistan’s stability. Iran, Russia and China — and the Central Asian states with which India and Afghanistan wish to cooperate in countering terrorism — fearf that continued instability in Afghanistan could spill over into their countries. India will also be adversely affected if negotiations break down. In that event, extremist exports from Pakistan to Afghanistan or India would probably increase.
•It could be worthwhile for India to explore the Iranian diplomatic options to secure Afghanistan. On good terms with Tehran, New Delhi would gain by developing the Chabahar port in southern Iran. And looking beyond Chabahar, India, Iran and Russia were the founding countries of the International North-South Transport Corridor project — as long ago as 2002. The corridor is intended to increase connectivity between India, Iran, Russia, landlocked Afghanistan and Central Asia — and Europe. It would also advance their trading interests.
•India could remind Washington about the past coincidence of American and Iranian interests on Afghanistan. Together with the U.S. and India, Iran supported the overthrow of the Taliban in 2001. In the international negotiations which followed in Bonn that year, Iran supported the installation of Hamid Karzai as President and favoured the exclusion of the Taliban from his government.
•Admittedly, U.S.-Iran ties have often been fractious. As the U.S. imposed sanctions on Iran after 2005, Iran saw the Taliban countering American influence on its borders and gave them arms. Iran continues to oppose the U.S.’s presence in Afghanistan, largely because it fears that American troops in Afghanistan could be used against it. To allay Iranian fears, Afghanistan recently said that it would not allow the U.S. to use its bases in the country to conduct any act of aggression against Iran.
•Last December, Iran also held talks with the Taliban with the knowledge of the Afghan government. But it should assure Kabul of its good intentions. In recent months Afghan officials have accused Iran, which the U.S. says is trying to extend its influence in western Afghanistan, of providing the Taliban with money, weapons and explosives. Iran denies the charge.
•The U.S. and Iran could be advised of the mutual, and regional, advantages of improving ties. Such advantages could range from stability in Afghanistan, and beyond, to increased trade prospects, especially in South and West Asia.
Win-win prospects
•Iran could gain by strengthening trading ties with a secure Afghanistan. In 2017 it supplanted Pakistan as Afghanistan’s largest trading partner. At a time when Iran’s economy is weighed down by American sanctions, it would want to build up trade ties with neighbouring states.
•The U.S. would also gain. After all, Iran is the geopolitical hub connecting South, Central and West Asia and the Caucasus. The Strait of Hormuz, that crucial conduit, links Iran westwards to the Persian Gulf and Europe, and eastwards to the Gulf of Oman, South and East Asia. Moreover, an improvement in U.S.-Iran relations would be welcomed by America’s European allies, who are opposed to Washington’s unilateral sanctions on Iran.
•The U.S. should not lose the chance to act in concert with Iran to improve Afghanistan’s security. And, as the U.S. airs the idea of withdrawal from Afghanistan, now is the right time for India to act as the honest broker between them and to play a larger role in regional security. The status of India and Iran as regional powers as well as the stability of South, Central, and West Asia would simultaneously be enhanced. It is to be hoped that Mr. Trump’s display of America’s “superpower” in opposition to Iran — and Russia and China — will not block such an opportunity to stabilise Afghanistan.
By walking out of the INF treaty, the U.S. may have dragged China and Russia into a new arms race
•China has predictably criticised the U.S.’s decision to walk out of the landmark Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) treaty, which was signed in 1987 by U.S. President Ronald Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev to eradicate conventional and nuclear missiles ranging from 500 to 5,500 km from their arsenals.
•Of all countries following the crumbling of the major arms control treaty, China seems to be the most impacted. The Chinese expect that the Americans will now reinforce their tactical missiles, both nuclear and conventional, in Guam, a large military base in Micronesia, at the heart of the U.S. deterrent in the Pacific. It is also expected that the Americans will pack other U.S. bases in the Pacific, especially those in Okinawa — a string of islands in the East China Sea that belong to Japan — with intermediate range missiles. By doing so, the U.S. would be able to virtually box in the movement of Chinese naval ships in the West Pacific, especially by safeguarding strategic gateways to the open sea, such as the Miyako Strait in Japan.
•China is aware that the post-INF missile deployments can significantly undermine its own deterrent, especially its mid-range missiles. Currently, the Americans have no answer to China’s DF-21D missiles. These weapons have been tailored to destroy U.S. aircraft carriers even at a distance of 1,450 km. China recently flaunted its DF-26 ballistic missiles, which can deliver a strike on Guam.
•Chinese media reports reveal Beijing’s apprehension that the Americans are at some point likely to propose a fresh arms control dialogue, sharply focusing on China’s mid-range missiles. The new treaty targeting China’s intermediate range missiles is expected to seek termination of the Chinese challenge to Washington’s military dominance in the West Pacific.
•But Beijing will not be second-bested by Washington in the tense ongoing tussle for equivalence, and in writing the rules, in the waters of the Pacific. A write-up published in China Military Online, a website affiliated with the People’s Liberation Army, points out that in view of the anticipated moves by the U.S., China must rapidly reinforce its nuclear arsenal, through qualitative rather than quantitative improvements.
•Besides, Beijing would have no choice but to beef up its conventional deterrence by developing hypersonic missiles, which can smash into targets at five times the speed of sound, unharmed by any existing ground-based missile defences. The next generation of strategic bombers as well as long-range air-launched cruise missiles could also be on Beijing’s radar.
•By taking the miscalculated step of walking out of the INF treaty, the U.S. may have dragged China, as well as Russia, into a new and unpredictable arms race, with the potential of destabilising the Indo-Pacific.
📰 Growth prop: On RBI repo rate cut
As the RBI cuts the benchmark repo rate, concerns over the fiscal deficit remain
•Barely four months after the Reserve Bank of India switched its monetary policy stance to one of ‘calibrated tightening’, signalling interest rates were set to trend higher, it has reversed direction. Not only did the RBI’s monetary policy committee unanimously opt to revert to a ‘neutral’ posture, but the rate-setting panel unexpectedly decided, by a 4-2 majority, to cut the benchmark repo rate by 25 basis points, to 6.25%. The MPC’s reasoning has been fairly straightforward. With Consumer Price Index-based inflation having continued to slow and projected to stay well below the medium-term target of 4% till at least the October-December quarter, the MPC saw an opportune moment to pivot to a growth-supportive stance. That there is a need to bolster economic momentum is evident from the RBI’s downward revision of the forecast for growth in the first half of the next fiscal year. The projection has been lowered to a range of 7.2-7.4%, from 7.5% posited in the RBI’s December statement, as moderating global growth and slowing overseas demand add uncertainties to the prevailing domestic imbalances. Specifically, production and import of capital goods, which is a key gauge of investment demand, contracted in November/December and credit flows to industry remain muted. With an overall shortfall of 4% in rabi sowing across various crops, and storage in major reservoirs at just 44% of the full level, the slowdown in farm output growth may, worryingly, end up being more protracted.
•The less-than-sanguine outlook for the rural economy is also reflected in the high-frequency indicators of the services sector. Data on sales of both motorcycles and tractors in December underscore weakening demand in the hinterland. This weakness in the farm sector is undergirding the unprecedented softness in food prices. The December CPI data showed continuing deflation in food items. While the RBI’s inflation calculus clearly benefits from the ongoing trend in price gains, the MPC is justifiably cognisant of the tenuousness of the assumptions it has made for its forward projections. Importantly, while it has assumed a normal monsoon this year, the central bank acknowledges that any variation in geographic spread or uneven distribution in terms of time could roil the inflation outlook. Inexplicably, however, the RBI’s policy statement fails to make any mention of its hitherto abiding concern about fiscal prudence. With the Interim Budget showing some slippage from the fiscal roadmap and projecting a budget deficit of 3.4% for both the current financial year and the next, the risk of government borrowing crowding out private investment demand remains tangibly real. One must assume that the central bank will resume normal service on providing salutary caution to the government after the coming general election.
📰 Only 50% of PAN linked to Aadhaar
CBDT chief warns of cancellation.
•With less than two months to go for the deadline to link Permanent Account Number (PAN) and Aadhaar, only a little more than half of PAN holders have linked them, Central Board of Direct Taxes Chairman Sushil Chandra said here on Wednesday.
•Mr. Chandra was speaking at an Assocham event.
•Only 23 crore of the total 42 crore PAN holders have linked them, he said.
•According to him the government could even cancel the PAN cards that were not Aadhaar-linked after the deadline of March 31, 2019. “By linking with Aadhaar, we will know whether there are any duplicate PANs or not,” Mr. Chandra said, while speaking at an Assocham event. “If it is not linked, we may cancel the PAN also.”
•Mr Chandra’s statements come just days after the Supreme Court ruled that the linking of PAN with Aadhaar would be mandatory to file income tax returns from April 1, 2019 onwards.
•According to Section 139AA of the Income Tax Act, inserted in 2017, not only is PAN mandatory for filing income tax returns but it is also mandatory for applying for a PAN card, which means that going ahead, all new PAN cards issued will automatically be linked to Aadhaar. The Section also says that “in case of failure to intimate the Aadhaar number, the permanent account number allotted to the person shall be deemed to be invalid”.
•Tax analysts say that the number of PAN card holders far exceeds the number of people filing income tax returns, but add that the linking of the two IDs was mandatory for even those who do not need to file returns since the PAN would be cancelled otherwise.
•According to Finance Minister Piyush Goyal in his Interim Budget speech, the number of income tax returns filed stands at 6.85 crore, which works out to just about 16% of the total number of PANs allotted.
•“There are number of people who were simply waiting for clarity on the issue before they linked PAN with Aadhaar,” Kuldip Kumar, Partner and Leader, Personal Tax, at PwC India explained. “There are many people who have a PAN but are not required to file tax returns, such as those below the taxable threshold. Then there are also a number of transactions that require PAN to be furnished, but the people conducting them might not necessarily be filing income tax returns.”
•Other tax analysts also point out that senior citizens, whose incomes fall below the Rs 2.5 lakh a year, also likely have PAN cards that are not linked to Aadhaar, which they will have to now link.
•“Among the 42 crore PAN holders, there are a number of companies also included who are allotted PAN,” Samir Kanabar, Partner at EY India said. “How they will link Aadhaar is also a matter than requires clarity.”
•One major problem arising out of the mandatory linking of the two IDs is that many people, notably in South India, are unable to do so due to a name mismatch. Many people have abbreviations in their names in Aadhaar, which allows them, whereas the PAN does not allow abbreviations.
•“From what I understand, the names have to match and only then can the two be linked,” Mr Kanabar added. “They will have to find some solution to this. They could possibly allow name mismatches, but then ensure that the other details such as date of birth, address, etc, are matching so that there is no erroneous linkage of PAN and Aadhaar.”
•So far, however, the government has not acknowledged or sought to address the issue.
📰 NGOs call for funds to eliminate tuberculosis
Plea for person-centred approach
•Non-governmental organisations (NGO) working to eliminate tuberculosis have urged the government to ensure that the National Strategic Plan for 2017-2025 is fully funded and effectively implemented to eliminate tuberculosis.
‘Invest substantially’
•Several NGOs and stakeholders, including TB survivors, have urged the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB and Malaria, and donor countries to invest substantially in communities to create a person-centred, rights-based and gender-sensitive response to TB.
•The signatories to these appeals are Touched by TB, TB Mukt Vahini-Bihar and REACH (Resource Group for Education and Advocacy on Community Health). These organisations are supported by the Stop TB Partnership, Geneva; Global Coalition of TB Activists; Rainbow TB Forum, Tamil Nadu; and Journalists against TB, Bengaluru.
•The NGOs and stakeholders have committed to supporting the government in achieving a people-centred and rights-based response; partnering with service providers to reach the last mile support; serving as an early-warning system by sharing real-time information; and contributing to effective planning and implementation of the National Tuberculosis Control Programme (NTCB), drawing on their lived experiences of TB.
•These decisions followed discussion by NGOs, stakeholders from the TB community, and survivors and community organisations, in New Delhi, on Wednesday.
Preparatory meeting
•The country will host the preparatory meeting for the 6th Replenishment of the Global Fund and Launch of the Investment Case on Friday and Saturday in New Delhi.
📰 Governing India’s many spaces
Ill fares the land where wealth accumulates, and the social and natural environment suffer
•As the general elections approach, it would be politic to take stock of the progress made by the incumbent party and look out for the areas that call for particular attention by the one that gains power. Without anticipating complete agreement on the indicators that ought to be used, I look at the changes since 2014 in three indices for India. These are the indices of the ‘Ease of Doing Business’ (EDB), ‘Human Development’ (HDI) and ‘Environmental Performance’ (EPI). They are self explanatory, and their importance unlikely to be contested, even though they may not exhaust all concerns. Published by separate international bodies, they are used to rank the world’s countries according to their performance in the related sphere. Rankings by themselves do not reveal the level of attainment but they do convey how far a country is from the global frontier.
The business ecosystem
•The EDB, an indicator put out by the World Bank, is meant mainly as an index of the effect of government regulations on running a business. It is also meant to reflect the extent of property rights in a society. Responses are sought from government officials, lawyers, business consultants, accountants and other professionals involved in providing advice on legal and regulatory compliance. A country’s ranking is based on the extent to which government regulations facilitate the following: starting a business, obtaining construction permits, getting an electricity connection, registering property, accessing credit, protection of investors, paying taxes, trading across borders, enforcement of contracts and resolving insolvency. The Narendra Modi government has set much at store by India’s improved ranking in terms of the EDB index. Actually, the improvement is considerable. From a rank of 134 in 2014, India’s rank improved to 77 in 2018. As 190 countries were ranked in 2018, India was in the top 50%. The position is not spectacular but the improvement is, as said, noteworthy.
•It is important to note that the use of the EDB has not been without controversy, with the World Bank’s Chief Economist, a Nobel Laureate, suggesting in an interview that in the past political bias may have crept into the ranking of countries. Let us for a moment overlook this episode and assume that in the case of India the ranking reflects reality. Perhaps a bigger problem with the EDB is that it measures the effect of government regulations alone. While it is important to take this aspect into account, in any situation the ease of doing business is dependent upon other factors too. One of these is the availability of ‘producer services’, with electricity, water supply and waste management coming to mind. There is little reason to believe that this infrastructure has improved in India in the last five years. The Planning Commission used to release data on infrastructural investment, but we have had none since its demise. Despite all these shortcomings, it is yet important to be concerned with the ease of doing business in India, an aspect that has been given little or no importance in public policy for over 50 years, and to note that the EDB ranking for the country shows significant improvement since 2014.
A true measure
•We may turn next to the better known Human Development Index. It is the result of a rare India-Pakistan collaboration in the global discourse on public policy, having been devised by Amartya Sen and Mahbub ul Haq for the United Nations Development Programme. The HDI is a combination of indicators of income, health and education in a country. Its conceptual basis has been critiqued. First, it has been pointed out that the index combines incommensurate categories, as income, health and education are not substitutes. Second, while it does go beyond purely economic measures of progress, in that it looks at the health and education achievements in a population, it can say little about the ‘quality’ of development. As pointed out by Selim Jahan of the UNDP, data can “[tell] us only a part of the story about people’s lives. For instance, it is increasingly clear that it is not enough simply to count how many children are in school: we need also to know whether they are learning anything.” He could have had India in mind!
•Nevertheless the HDI has now gained reasonable acceptance globally as indicative of the development strides a country has taken. When we turn to the HDI, we find that India’s ranking has not altered since 2014. India was ranked 130 in 2014, and has remained in the same place out of 185 countries in 2018. It is of relevance here that India’s HDI ranking has not improved despite it being the world’s fastest growing major economy in recent years, as the government often points out in its assessments. This despite income being a component of the index. What this reveals is that an economy can grow fast without much progress in human development. Also, India’s HDI position in the bottom third of countries points to how much it needs to progress to earn the label ‘the world’s largest democracy’.
Environmental costs
•Finally, we may look at India’s recent record on the Environmental Performance Index. The EPI is produced jointly by Yale and Columbia Universities in collaboration with the World Economic Forum. The index ranks countries on 24 performance indicators across several ‘issue categories’, each of which fit under one of two overarching objectives, namely, environmental health and eco-system vitality. The issue categories are air quality, water and sanitation, water resources, agriculture, forests, fisheries, biodiversity and habitat, and climate and energy. These metrics are meant to serve as a gauge at a national level of how close countries are to accepted environmental policy goals. In 2018 India ranked 177 out of 180 countries, having slipped from an already very low rank of 155 in 2014. The country is today among the worst performing on the environmental front and its ranking has worsened over the past five years.
•We now have indicators of the progress India has made in the past five years in the three crucial spheres of business, human development and the natural environment. A clear picture emerges. The government has aggressively pursued an improvement in the business environment. This appears to have yielded fruit in terms of an improvement in the EDB index. However, at a time when it has been the fastest growing economy in the world, India’s rank on human development has remained unchanged and on environmental performance has slipped close to the last place.
•These outcomes would not surprise anyone familiar with public policy since 2014. The Narendra Modi government has marginally lowered health and education expenditure as a share of national income and distinctly lowered environmental standards. An instance of the latter would be the Coastal Regulation Zone Notification of 2018 which allows construction and tourism development on land earlier considered inviolable due to its ecological value. This de-regulation is a setback for India. It is only one instance of the failure to recognise the plunder of India’s natural capital taking place at an accelerated pace. Political parties now fervently making a pitch to govern India must indicate how they will reverse it. Ill fares the land where wealth accumulates and nature frays.
📰 Taxpayers, MPs, MLAs can’t avail farm income support
Municipal corporation, panchayat heads also excluded.
•Income Tax assessees and sitting or former Members of Parliament or State legislatures are among those who have been excluded from the scope of the Centre’s scheme of income support for farmers, which was announced in the Union budget last week.
•In respect of the IT assessees, those who paid the tax in the last assessment year would be ineligible under the scheme, which envisages the payment of ₹6,000 per annum to marginal and small farmers (each holding cultivable land up to 2 hectares), according to the scheme’s operational guidelines.
•The list of exclusions is pretty long.
•It includes former and present holders of constitutional posts such as Governors or Election Commissioners; serving and retired officers and employees of the Union government or State governments including those in public sector enterprises and autonomous institutions and regular employees of local bodies. Class IV or Group D employees have been exempted from the exclusion. Likewise pensioners who are getting ₹10,000 or more every month will not be covered.
•As in the case of parliamentarians and legislators, former and present heads of municipal corporations and district panchayats would also not be considered for the income support.
Professionals excluded
•Professionals including doctors, engineers, lawyers, chartered accountants and architects have been excluded apart from institutional landholders, the guidelines show.
•The Centre has made it clear that the cut-off date for determination of eligibility of beneficiaries under the scheme is February 1, 2019, and no subsequent changes would be considered for the eligibility of benefit for 5 years. However, the benefit would be allowed in cases where transfer of ownership of cultivable land takes place on account of succession due to death of the landowner. Also, cases where the transfer of ownership happened due to reasons such as purchase, succession, and through will or gift, between December 1, 2018, and January 31, 2019, would be eligible for coverage.
•Taking cognisance of the system of community-based land ownership rights in some of the northeastern States, the Centre has stated that an alternative implementation mechanism would be developed and approved by a committee of Union Ministers in charge of Development of North East Region, Land Resources and Agriculture and State Chief Ministers concerned.
📰 ‘No proposal to modify February 12 circular’
Decision to remove 3 banks from PCA after considering capital infusion by Centre, says RBI Governor
•Among the various issues RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das touched upon during his first post-policy interaction with the media was the February 12 circular of the central bank which mandates insolvency proceedings under IBC for a debt servicing default beyond 180 days. Excerpts:
What kind of inflationary impact does MPC see due to the policies announced in the Budget? How concerned is the MPC over fiscal slippage?
•The impact of various budget proposals and other developments have been factored into our projections. The possibility of fiscal slippage has been discussed. The government has said 3.4% fiscal deficit this year and 3.4% next year.
•That has also been factored into our inflation projections.
•We are working on the basis of those numbers.
Will there be an interim dividend to the government?
•With regard to interim dividend, as when the central board takes a decision, it will be announced.
Since you said that inflation will not rise above 3.9% for this calender year, did the MPC consider a 50 bps cut? Or do you think the space exists in 2019 itself?
•There are several discussions that take place in the MPC. As and when the minutes are given on February 21, it will be known. The shift in stance of monetary policy also provides flexibility and the room to address challenges to sustain growth of the Indian economy over the coming months as long as inflation outlook remains benign. The MPC’s decision will be data-driven and in consonance with the primary objective of the monetary policy to maintain price stability, keeping in mind the objective of growth.
What convinced you to go for growth rather than inflation?
•In the RBI Act, price stability has been defined as 4%, plus/minus 2. Once that target is on board, and in the next 12-month horizon we see that inflation remains at a maximum of 4% or below, then I think there is room to act. And, the Act also says, ‘keeping in mind the objective of growth’. So, the decision of the MPC has not gone beyond the RBI Act. And we are also saying the decision of MPC will be data-driven.
•There have been demands to make certain changes in the February 12 circular. What is your view on the issue?
•At the moment, there is no proposal to modify the February 12 circular.
RBI has removed three banks from PCA. How soon can we expect more banks to come out from PCA?
•We have watched the performance of the three banks and analysed in detail. We also took into account the capital infusion by the government. There is no scope for discretion.
(Deputy Governor M.K. Jain):
•As long as there is some improvement in the benchmark parameters, it will be examined at the appropriate time.
There are still concerns over liquidity for the NBFCs and the SME sector. How do you plan to address the issue?
•The Reserve Bank is constantly, continuously monitoring the liquidity situation, and based on requirements, we will ensure that there is no liquidity scarcity.
What are the big concerns about the Indian economy going ahead?
•One is the monsoon. The second is crude oil prices and the overall external situation, for example, Brexit and how the U.S. economy is recovering.
•There are trade conflicts which are expected to get resolved but we do not know how much time it will take. So, these are the risk factors which will have an impact on our domestic economy, and which we are regularly monitoring.
📰 Rail tunnel for Vizhinjam port connectivity
On completion, the 9.02-km tunnel will be the second longest one in the country
•A 10.7-km railway line, including a 9.02-km tunnel, has been proposed to connect the upcoming Vizhinjam International Multipurpose Deepwater Seaport to the railway network.
•The 9.02-km tunnel, mooted by Konkan Railway Corporation Ltd (KRCL) from near the Balaramapuram station on the Kanyakumari-Thiruvananthapuram railway line, will be the second longest railway tunnel of the country on completion.
•The KRCL, in its draft Detailed Project Report (DPR) submitted to Vizhinjam International Seaport Limited (VISL) — a special purpose company supervising the execution of the seaport project — has favoured the railway tunnel from Balaramapuram in view of the 35-metre level difference between the port and the highest ground level, undulating terrain, and local population.
•The proposed railway line from Balaramapuram to Vizhinjam will be a single line and will be sufficient for the movement of 9 to 10 rakes daily through the corridor for the next 20 years, according to KRCL.
•As much as 6.57 hectares will have to be acquired on the Balaramapuram-Vizhinjam stretch for laying the line.
•The cost of providing the rail connectivity, including land acquisition, has been put at ₹1,069 crore.
•The government has decided to set up a high-level committee to look into the DPR submitted by the KRCL, official sources told The Hindu on Thursday. Fine-tuning of the alignment will be taken up after the evaluation.
By May 2022
•The KRCL, experts in constructing tunnels, was roped in after Rail Vikas Nigam Ltd (RVNL) under the Union Ministry of Railways backed out from the seaport connectivity project. The plan is to establish the railway link by May 2022.
•The development of the Balaramapuram railway station is being explored as part of the rail link to the seaport. A committee comprising officials of the Department of Ports, VISL, and Railways is working on the procedures.
