Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, who is also in charge of the metro project, has directed the Kochi Metro Rail Limited (KMRL) and the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) to ensure that Phase-I of the metro (18-km-long Aluva-Maharaja’s College stretch) was commissioned by March 2017.
Mr. Vijayan gave directions in this regard at a meeting with KMRL Managing Director Elias George and Systems Director Praveen Goyal in Thiruvananthapuram on Monday. He also asked for a quarterly report, besides instructing officials to fix a schedule on quarterly basis to expedite work.
The development comes in the wake of the DMRC’s recent revision of the November 2016 deadline, extending it to March 2017.
Another meeting
It is learnt that the Chief Minister will call another meeting with DMRC officials, including its Principal Advisor E. Sreedharan, in Kochi later this month. Mr. Vijayan is also slated to visit the metro corridor and other work sites during his Kochi visit. On Monday, KMRL officials apprised him of the need to speed up the constitution of a Unified Metropolitan Transportation Authority (UMTA-Kochi).
They also briefed him about the metro’s Kakkanad extension, ongoing projects undertaken by the KMRL like the integrated water transport project for greater-Kochi area, the city’s infrastructure development projects, construction of modern footpaths and walkways, and the proposal to procure 100 electric feeder buses for the metro.
Nalini Netto, Additional Chief Secretary and Secretary to the Chief Minister; M. Shivasankar, Secretary, IT, and Private Secretary to the Chief Minister; Sreekumar, Additional Secretary, Transport, and Praveen Goyal, Director (Systems), Metro Rail, were present.
