Test piling at the Pathadipalam metro station site on the Kalamassery-Edappally stretch commenced here on Monday. Pathadipalam is one of the 22 stations proposed under the 25-km Phase-I of the Kochi Metro Rail Ltd (KMRL). On Sunday, the work of the first pile near Changampuzha Park at Edappally was completed. The completion of the piling work comes a few days after the official inauguration last week. The work at both Pathadipalam and Changampuzha Park sites has been undertaken by Larsen and Toubro Construction. Sources confirmed that the work would take a few weeks’ time to be completed.
Test piling at Aluva and Mamangalam has also begun. KMRL has entrusted School of Management Studies, Cusat, to conduct a feasibility study on parking facilities with traffic circulation in metro stations which is expected to be submitted within two months.
To encourage maximum number of people to use Metro Rail services, KMRL is planning to provide parking facility in stations wherever possible as the project report submitted by DMRC does not have any specification of parking facilities in stations. So far the feasible locations are Kalamassery, Aluva, Edappally and Petta. Even with the onset of monsoon Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) has assured that the metro work will not be hit by the rain and that the project will be completed on time.
Though rainwater may hinder the construction work, DMRC has taken all necessary precautions to carry out the work efficiently.
While construction is being carried out, the authorities are working on speeding up the process of the land acquisition. According to District Collector P I Sheikh Pareeth, the land values around the Edappally North, Edappally South and Kaloor stations have been set. The land value of the remaining stations are yet to be assessed.