Passenger amenities at the two main railway stations in Ernakulam and railway stations at Edappally and Tripunithura must be augmented prior to Kochi Metro’s commissioning in June 2016, K.V. Thomas, MP said.
Speaking after inaugurating an escalator at the first platform of Ernakulam North railway station on Thursday, he called for proper inter-modal connectivity between the metro and railway network so that commuters benefit.
Elaborating about the huge potential of the metro and suburban railway network, he said that Delhi Metro covers the Parliament House-New Delhi airport sector in 15 minutes time, compared to the two hours time taken by road. “Attention also needs to be given to speed up land acquisition for rail-track doubling,” he said.
Hibi Eden, MLA, lamented that platform one of the railway station does not have full roof cover for 26-cach trains. Even the existing roof is in bad shape. Thiruvanathapuram Divisional Railway Manager Sunil Bajpai said that the Railway will do the needful to augment passenger amenities, despite the paucity of funds. “Work on an escalator at the station’s second platform will begin shortly,” he said.
