Darkness lingers near Vyttila hub

Vyttila is one of the busiest intersections of the city, and home to a few of Kochi’s vital points of connectivity — a metro station, mobility hub and water metro.
The darkness surrounds the Vyttila metro station | ARUN ANGELA
The darkness surrounds the Vyttila metro station | ARUN ANGELA

KOCHI: Vyttila is one of the busiest intersections of the city, and home to a few of Kochi’s vital points of connectivity — a metro station, mobility hub and water metro. But the alleys that connect its facilities to the main roads are now in darkness due to dysfunctional street lights. The back exit of Vyttila Hub, connecting the hub and metro station to Sri Siva Subrahmanya Swayambhoo Temple, becomes completely dark post nightfall, posing inconvenience to commuters who use the road to walk to and from the metro station. 

The 500-metre stretch between the hub and metro station has five street lights, but not a single one is functional. “This is a serious problem which needs to be addressed immediately. It gets dark after 8pm. The area is filled with antisocial elements and drunkards. It is scary to walk there at night,” said employee at the Vytilla metro station. It is scary to pass this stretch at night,” she added. Snehil Kumar Singh, managing director of Vytilla Mobility Hub, was not available to comment. The officials at Vytilla Mobility Hub promised  that the streetlights will be repaired soon, now that the elections are over.  

In December 2019, TNIE had carried a similar story about unlit area surrounding the hub and metro station. “The street lights were repaired and were functional a few months back. But the residents of the area were using the plot of land adjacent to the road to dump waste illegally.

To get rid of the garbage, the residents burnt the waste and melted the insulation pipes of cables in the process. This is why none of the lights is functional,” said another official at Vytilla Mobility Hub. “We had given a complaint to the police in this regard. However, new tenders have been issued and the repairing work will begin soon as  the elections are over,” the official added.

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