Title - Metro dreams get a start

Kochi: The city’s development is on wheels as the works on the Rs 5,181-crore Kochi Metro Rail starting near Changanmpuzha Park at Edappally got going on Monday. And Metroman E. Sreedharan’s promise is that exactly 1,095 days (three years) from this day, the three-coach trains will chug out from Aluva to Tripunithura and not Pettah nearby which was in the original plan.The decision to shift the last point to Tripunithura, a demand that had been growing in the city, will find the government chipping in an extra Rs 300 crore. This was announced by transport minister Aryadan Muham­med after his boss, chief minister Oommen Chandy, waved the green flag.It has been a long wait, an idea that got the nod during Chandy’s earlier tenure. In between, the Left Democratic Front Govern­ment too contributed to hastening the process by allocating Rs 172 crore for road works along the Metro route.It has not been an easy ride so far with the state government insisting that it should be a Central project but the Union government wanted it to be on the build-operate-transfer model. However, pressure from the state made the Centre agree to the present form.Even after that there were issues on who should build it. The state wanted it to be undertaken by the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation as it hinged on the expertise of Sreedharan. Finally, that too succeeded with DMRC becoming the implementing agency for Kochi Metro Rail Ltd which would appoint necessary staff and after completion of the project absorb them to become an agency with expertise to undertake similar work across the country.

The work has been planned in a regulated manner so as not to create any problem for those travelling into and out of the city. The 25-km stretch will be in sections of 200 metres each with piling to be in 25-metre gaps. This will mean that the work in each section would take two and a half months. The mud from the pile would be taken out immediately and dumped outside the city. This phased manner of the work will ensure that traffic snarls, if any, would be confined to just 200 metres, say authorities involved in the work.

And Oommen Chandy who flagged off the initial works at a grand function, said that the requests from several quarters to extend the Metro to the airport at Nedumbassery, to West Kochi to cover Mattancherry and Fort Kochi and the IT hub of Kakkanad in the second phase. For this, the study would have to be undertaken and the report would have to be submitted in six months.

Project viability

When the state launched the country’s first-ever international airport on a public-private partnership model in Kochi, there were doubts about its viability. The answer was that viability would be through non-aviation revenue. And the Cochin International Airport Ltd has proved a successful venture.

Metros across the globe are not viable projects going just by ticketing sales, admits KMRL managing director Elias George. It is through property development at the stations which have a number of business facilities that bring income. This is the case in Singapore, Hong Kong and Bangkok.

Here too at the Muttom yard at Aluva and at Kakkanad, such facilities would be developed which would turn into trade centres. Even at most of the stations, property would be developed where people could go to shop. These would make the project viable, Elias asserts.

Tripunithura gets Metro link; monorail next

 

The state government is to make an additional allocation of Rs 300 crore to ensure that the Kochi Metro is extended to Tripunithura. This was announced  during the launch of the work for the Rs 5,181-crore Kochi Metro Rail here on Friday. Besides, the consultancy agreement for the Rs 5,000-crore monorail project in Thiruvananthapuram and Kozhikode is to be signed with Delhi Metro Rail Corporation in a week.

Chief Minister Oommen Chandy, who officially launched the work, said that the demand to extend the Metro to Tripunithura had been there for quite some time and requested Transport Minister Aryadan Muhammed to make the announcement. It would involve an additional expenditure of Rs 300 crore and would be taken to the Centre soon for approval. Originally, the project was supposed to end at nearby Petta. The study on extension of the rail to other centres would be finalised in six months.

Chandy said that once the consultancy agreement for the monorail was signed with Delhi Metro Rail Corporation, the initial work would start in August. 

Promise will be kept: Sreedharan

It was on January 9 that Union minister Kamal Nath announced that DMRC would take up the Kochi Metro works. "And then we had said that the works would commence in five months," said E. Sreedharan. It was on January 9 that Union minister Kamal Nath announced that DMRC would take up the Kochi Metro works. “And then we had said that the works would commence in five months,” said Metroman Sreedharan who is also the principal adviser to DMRC.

As promised the work would be completed in three years. All the civil work tenders were in place. Those for other works like rolling stock, signaling systems would be ready by December, he said, adding, “Not a single day will be lost.”

The works had been so planned that the difficulties for commuters would be minimal. Work would be completed in sections and there would be volunteers to guide the commuters. There could be some traffic snarls. “But please bear with us and help us complete the works quickly,” was his request to the public.