KOCHI: Amid reports of changes incorporated in the original alignment of Kochi Metro Phase 2, also referred to as the Pink Line, it has been revealed that the road along the 11.2-km-long corridor connecting the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium with Infopark won’t have uniform width.
In its reply to an RTI query, the Kochi Metro Rail Ltd (KMRL) said land has been acquired such that the road along the stretch from Palarivattom to Infopark will have a width of 22 to 26 m, and that 2m on both sides is meant for construction of drainage.
“Land has been acquired in the stretch from Palarivattom to Infopark not in a uniform width,” the RTI reply to the specific query said. However, to another query, the RTI reply said “no concession” has been granted to any of the owners during the land acquisition process. “The phase 2 alignment runs in a zigzag manner. If one inspects the stretch from the turning just after Palarivattom POC till Vazhakkala, it can be seen that areas like Alinchuvadu, Chembumukku and Vazhakkala have lesser width, even less than 20 m. This may not fully resolve the current traffic congestion issue,” said Raju Vazhakala, an RTI activist.
Currently, the section from Palarivattom to Vazhakkala witnesses heavy traffic congestion and it was expected to ease with the road development activities as part of the Pink Line construction.D Dhanuraj, chairman of the Centre for Public Policy Research (CCPR), said a further study on possible traffic congestion is needed if the road width is less at certain points.
“The coming up of a metro system is said to decongest roads, though I favour a dedicated bus corridor for this. A study should be done on whether the ‘bottlenecks’ will lead to traffic congestion or not, and the solutions,” he said.
When contacted, a KMRL official entrusted with the construction activities of the section, said the entire stretch will be at least 22 m wide, except in the Padamugal-Kakkanad stretch. “We’re following the existing road width in this section as it’s more or less a one-way system and there is no heavy traffic,” he added.
The 11 (1) notification with regard to land acquisition for the second phase was published in the gazette on December 21, 2018. It said 221 cents of land from 42 land owners were being acquired in the Edappally South village jurisdiction, while 254 cents were being acquired from 152 landowners under the Vazhakkala village jurisdiction.
“As many as 232.22458 cents of land have been acquired from 21 land owners, and a sum of `11.6 crore distributed so far to the owners,” the RTI reply said. However, the authorities refused to give a reply to a query on the compensation provided to shop owners, saying the “data is yet to be codified”.
The Kochi Metro Phase 11 project involves the setting up of a metro line from JLN Stadium to Infopark via Kakkanad, at a cost of `1,957.05 crore, with a length of 11.17 km and 11 stations – Jawaharlal Nehru (JLN) Stadium, Palarivattom Junction, Palarivattom Bypass, Chembumukku, Vazhakkala, Padamughal, Civil Station Jn, Cochin SEZ, Chittethukara, Kinfra and Infopark.