With work on the Kochi Metro Rail expected to begin by May, a tentative plan has been charted out to divert vehicles entering the city from Kalamassery.
This is because the work on the pillars and viaduct on the Aluva-Pettah stretch will occupy about eight metres width of the road – about four metres on either side of the four-lane road along the alignment (the Vyttila-Pettah road will be widened as four-lane soon).
Parking curbs
While steps will be taken to ensure two-lane traffic flow on either side of the Aluva-Edappally highway, many narrow portions of the Edappally-M.G. Road-Pettah stretch will have to reckon with single-lane traffic. Here, steps will be taken to develop alternative roads to divert vehicles. Roads will be widened and parking banned wherever necessary to ensure two-lane traffic in the city.
The civil works of the metro project have already been tendered in four packages – Aluva-Kalamassery, Kalamassery-International Stadium, Stadium-South Railway Station and Railway station-Pettah. By confining the works to 200 metre-long stretches at a given time, care will be taken to prevent traffic being thrown haywire.
The police will finalise the traffic diversion plans, following which trials are planned by April end.
Traffic sign boards, lights, warnings and speed regulation boards and traffic diversions at entry points of by-roads will be displayed, says a press release issued by Kochi Metro Rail Limited (KMRL), following a meeting of the stakeholders held here on Tuesday.
The meeting was chaired by Elias George, Managing Director of KMRL and attended by P. Sriram, Kochi Project Director of DMRC; K. Padmakumar, Ernakulam Range Inspector General of Police; Sheikh Pareeth, District Collector; K.G. James, Commissioner of Police; Satheesh Bino, Ernakulam Rural Superintendent of Police; Mahesh Kumar, KMRL Director (Projects); Mohammed Rafiq, Deputy Commissioner of Police; and Baby Vinod and K.K. Shams ACPs (Traffic) –City and Edappally.
