Kochi | The Kerala High Court has directed the Railways to prepare the detailed project report for the proposed railway line connecting Nilambur in Keralam and Nanjangud in Karnataka by October 14.

A bench of Chief Justice Soumen Sen and Justice Syam Kumar V M also directed the railways to state in an affidavit on October 14 whether the DPR has been placed before the competent authority for approval and sanction.

The order came on a plea moved by the chairman of the Kozhikode-based Cancer and Allied Ailment Research (CARE) Foundation, which runs the MVR Cancer Centre and Research Institute.

CARE chairman C N Vijayakrishnan has claimed in the plea that there is a necessity for having a railway connectivity in the Malabar region, but it was not being considered by the authorities despite several representations by him.

Subsequently, in July this year, the southern railways filed an affidavit stating that the Railway Board has accorded sanction for undertaking the Final Location Survey (FLS) for the Nilambur-Nanjangud Railway Project.

As part of that, a LIDAR (Light Detection and Ranging) survey and traffic survey required for the FLS is being carried out and the DPR is under preparation and, upon completion, the same will be submitted to the Railway Board for its consideration.

It also told the court that the implementation of the Nilambur-Nanjangud Railway Project was contingent upon the approval and sanction of the project by the competent authority.

The bench said, "The affidavit was filed on July 27, 2026. We hope that by this time the DPR must have been prepared and if not, it should be prepared by the adjourned date (October 14) and placed before this court in the form of an affidavit. The affidavit must indicate whether the DPR has been placed before the competent authority for approval and sanction of the Nilambur-Nanjangud Railway Project."