The Town Hall-Madhava Pharmacy Junction stretch in Banerjee Road will be widened as a four-lane one by December 2013.
This is as part of Kochi Metro’s preparatory works since the two-lane stretch is extremely narrow, unable to cater to the increasing number of vehicles.
“The acquisition of a total of 56 cents of land in the stretch will be completed this week. Our aim is to convert the road into a 22-metre-wide road,” said sources in the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC).
The time span of a year to widen the road will not affect the pace of piling and other works that will be undertaken for building the metro’s pillars.
This is because these works will begin at four-lane stretches in the Aluva-Pettah corridor that already have ample width.
The Revenue Department has taken over 21 plots in the Town Hall-Madhava Pharmacy Junction stretch.
Land acquisition
“The widening process can begin within days of all the land being taken over since a contractor to pull down buildings and widen the stretch was finalised over a year ago. The delay in land acquisition might marginally increase the cost of widening. It will take about a year to widen the road since buildings will have to be partially or fully pulled down and the drains rebuilt. Utility cables and pipelines too will have to be shifted. These works will consume more time than the widening work,” the sources said. The widening works will not affect the flow of traffic since most buses will continue to be diverted through Paramara Road.
M G Road
The widening of the MG Road (for which nine cents has to be acquired) and Jos Junction-Ernakulam Junction railway station road (37.50 cents has to be acquired) is expected to be taken up by the DMRC alongside the work on the pillars of the metro.
The land owners will be paid Rs 52 lakh per cent as compensation for all the three road-widening projects of the metro.
This is apart from the cost of buildings that will be pulled down.
