KOCHI: The Railways has decide to construct a ramp connecting Edappally old Railway Station and New Station so as to bridge the nearly 100 metre gap between the two structures. However, the Greater Cochin Development Authority (GCDA), which had earlier agreed to construct a road to bridge the gap as per public request has backed out from the plan stating that the proposed ramp will not help vehicles to reach the new station.
“It was during the tenure of the previous Railway Divisional manager that the GCDA got the request from the Edappally Passengers Association for constructing a road to bridge the gap between both the old and new stations. The vehicles as well as passengers from Ponekkara side can reach only up to the Old Railway station now.
The ticket counter is on the other side of the new building. Hence, the vehicles cannot cross the old station and passenger find it difficult to reach the ticket counter.
If they want to reach the ticket counter the passengers have to travel all the way down to Edappally. Considering the request as a genuine one, we approved the proposal and inspected the site and provisions were made in the budget for the construction of a 15 metre road to link both the stations,” said GCDA chairman N Venugopal.
He said that the total estimated cost for the construction of the road is Rs 20 lakh.
“But the Railway authorities are now telling us to construct a ramp instead of the road. The ramp will only have a height of 2.5 feet and width of 3 metre. They argue that construction of a road through Railway premises will lead to trespassing. We are not ready to agree with the plan and hence decided to back out,” added Venugopal.
He also said that as the vehicles cannot enter through the ramp, the project will fail to fulfil its purpose.
