Even as attempts are on to speed up its progress, the Kochi metro rail project has run into another blockade in the form of a ban on works from the Kalamassery municipality.
Officials with the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation said the project had come to a complete standstill near the dumping yard in Kalamassery with the municipality directing metro to stop all activities till further intimation. “Following this, works on the six piers from 218 to 223, have been held up from April 13 onwards, breaking the momentum of works between Aluva and Palarivattom,” they said.
"There is a need to complete the piers at the location, a low-lying area, before the onset of monsoon and any further delay in resuming the works would drag the schedule by another couple of months,” they warned.
Confirming the stoppage of works, officials at the Kalamassery Municipality said they took the step following repeated violations by the metro authority regarding the agreement on land use and related issues. “Ever since the works began in the area, they have been executing the works and traffic diversion plans on their own, without consulting us,” they said.
About three months ago, the municipality had served a letter to the metro rail authorities seeking urgent action to address the frequent bursting of water pipes and break of telephone networks due to the excavation work for the project. The agency, however, sat on the letter for a long period and came up for a dialogue only after we threatened to stop the work, they alleged.
On the occasion, they also accused the contractor agency of taking over more land than allotted for the metro works and dumping concrete waste in the area without permission.
Officials of the Kochi Metro Rail Limited informed that its Managing Director Elias George was scheduled to meet the municipality authority on April 26 to sort out all the outstanding issues.
