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Kochi Metro to chug in March, but won't reach heart of city

  • Kerala Chief Minister had wanted to complete the 18 km stretch of the Metro before starting commercial operation. 
  • But the DMRC and KMRL is in no position to start it before March. 
  • Now the Metro will run only 12 km from Aluva to Palarivattom
Kochi Metro to start operations in March

 The ambitious Kochi Metro project will be partly commissioned in March this year, more than a year after it was flagged off in January 2016. 

 

Metro Man E Sreedharan, Principal Advisor of the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation(DMRC), inspected the first stretch of the metro rail from Aluva to Palarivattom on Monday and told media persons that the first phase would be commissioned in March. But the DMRC and the Kochi Metro Rail Limited (KMRL) is unlikely to fulfil the wish of Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan who wanted to run the Metro train till Maharajas College, that would connect the heart of the city.  


Kochi Metro to start operations in March

Vijayan had told a high level meeting on Kochi Metro in December that there was no hurry in commissioning and that the services should start operating services only after the work was completed till Maharaja's College. If the Metro service didn't connect to the busy commercial stretch around MG Road, it would only create more traffic problems, he pointed out. 

 

But the DMRC informed that it could only be completed by June when the contractual agreement ends. Ealier, the DMRC was planning to complete the Aluva-Palarivattom reach by November last year. But it got further delayed. 

 

Interestingly, the Rs. 5,180 crore rail project was flagged off in January 2016 by the then Chief Minister Oommen Chandy at the Muttom rail yard.  

 

Problems in land acquisition paused a big hurdle for the metro project. As per the project plan, land requirement for the 25 km stretch of Aluva -Petta Corridor is about 25.3347 hectares out of which 9.3787 hectares belonged to Government, while the balance 15.9559 hectare is private land.

 

 Each day’s delay the Project was estimated to overrun the project cost by  15 lakhs. As per the original plan, the commercial operation was scheduled to start in March 2016.  


 

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