Inordinate delay in land acquisition might prompt Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) to confine Kochi Metro’s initial line to the Aluva-Palarivattom stretch by June 2016, the scheduled date of commissioning the 25-km-long stretch up to Pettah, the agency’s Principal Adviser E. Sreedharan said.
Early in 2014, the metro agency had stated that the metro would not go beyond Maharaja’s College Ground on M.G. Road by June 2016, due to huge delay by the Revenue Department in acquiring land. Replying to a set of questions from The Hindu , Mr. Sreedharan said that currently, the project’s commissioning from Aluva to Palarivattom was scheduled for June 2016. “Taking the metro beyond Palarivattom up to Maharaja’s College Ground will depend on the availability of land on this stretch. A target date cannot be set beyond the ground (up to Pettah) unless and until land is made available,” he said. Land acquisition is yet to begin on Jos Junction-Ernakulam Junction railway station-South overbridge and Vyttila-Pettah stretches, despite expiry of numerous deadlines. Making a scathing attack on the tardy pace of land acquisition, Mr. Sreedharan said, “The DMRC is certainly not satisfied with the progress of Kochi Metro works (due to the delay in handing over land despite compensation being given as per market rate). Now, our effort is to commission the metro up to at least Palarivattom by June 2016,” he said.
Currently, the DMRC has been forced to restrict construction activities to Aluva-Maharaja’s College Ground and Manorama Junction-Vyttila Janatha stretches since sufficient land is not available.
Even in the former section, there are still a number of places where land has not been handed over. Some people handed over the land only in December. “There are still six overhead high-tension lines between Aluva and Kalamassery that we are unable to shift out (of metro alignment) for want of land. Subsequently, the work has been held up in many patches. Works on SA Road had been held up till recently as the KWA did not shift water pipelines on time,” the Metro man said.
On conducting trial runs, he said the first lot of metro coaches was expected to arrive by January 2016. In the first stage, trial run will be done between Muttom and Edappally Junction that month itself. Next is Edappally-Palarivattom and then Muttom-Aluva by February 2016.
Mr. Sreedharan termed the progress achieved by DMRC as ‘commendable’ when compared to Kerala’s standards of delivery, despite various hurdles encountered by the agency. “I have no hesitation to record that no other organisation would have reached this progress. Generally, we are receiving full cooperation and appreciation from members of the public despite inconveniences during construction stage.”
