Thiruvananthapuram, Mar 3 (IANS); Clashes broke out between people and the Kerala police at Aluva in Ernakulam district and Chengannur in Alappuzha district against the K-Rail project on Thursday after the 23rd CPI-M conference gave green signal to the project.

The police took on the protesters at Chengannur after they prevented the K-Rail staff who had come to lay the marking stones as part of the survey which has been going on across the state.

Seeing the stiff protest, the police swung into action and arrested 8 of them. The situation was no different at Aluva also.

Meanwhile, CPI-M general secretary Sitaram Yechuri told the media at Kochi that this is a project which will be good for the state and all those who will lose their land will be more than adequately compensated.

Incidentally at the four day 23rd Party Conference which will conclude on Friday, this project was a topic of discussion and the party leadership spoke about it and the 1500 delegates have been convinced of the need for the project and there appeared to be no difference of opinion in the party.

Meanwhile, the Congress led opposition is all set to launch a massive state-wide protest starting from March 10 to April 4 against the project, which even Metroman E. Sreedharan has termed it an idiotic one.

If completed the pet project of Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan will see a 529.45 km corridor connecting Thiruvananthapuram to Kasaragod and a high speed train will run this distance in around four hours and it will cost Rs 63,940 crore. NITI Aayog says it might cost Rs 1.24 lakh crore and is expected to be completed in 2025 according to the detailed project report.