KOCHI: Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan on Friday said the state government was keen on transforming the public transport system in the entire state and stressed the need to make it equitable, affordable and sustainable. “Kochi Water Metro is a unique project and we are conducting a study in this regard in the districts of Kollam and Alappuzha,” said Pinarayi. He also said electric buses will be introduced into the KSRTC fleet in the coming months, replacing those running on internal combustion engine.
He was speaking after inaugurating the 15th Urban Mobility India Conference and Exhibition virtually along with Union Minister for Housing and Urban Affairs Hardeep Singh Puri. ‘’Kerala is the second most urbanised state with 47.7% of our population living in urban areas. Though we are second in urbanisation, the difference between urban and rural is narrow here,’’ he said.
“As far as Kerala is concerned, we are committed to preparing a complete master plan for all our cities by 2026. It will be a sustainable and resilient city development plan and we intend to do it in consultation with the best urban planners and experts available in the country,’’ Pinarayi said.
The three-day conference is organised by the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs in collaboration with the state government.Senior officials from the central and state governments, policymakers, managing directors of metro rail companies and chief executives of transport undertakings participated in the event.
Speaking about the rapid progress of Indian Metro lines in the global context, Puri said that as of September 2022, 810 km of the metro line were operational in 20 cities, and a network of more than 980 km and the Regional Rapid Transit System is under construction in 27 cities. “At present, India is ranked the fifth-largest metro network in the world and we would soon overtake economies such as Japan and South Korea to have the third-largest network,” he said.