Does Kozhikode really need the proposed light metro? The demand for a Light Metro never arose from the people of Kozhikode and it was a State government decision, a people’s debate on the project held here on Tuesday noted.
There have been no authentic discussions about its impact and feasibility anywhere in the State. It was only the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) that has taken up the work of the light metro that has conducted any sort of study on the project.
With Finance Minister T.M. Thomas Isaac setting aside a nominal amount for the project in the latest State budget, the idea of light metro has become more concrete and Kozhikode does have its anxieties about the project that need to be answered.
“The DMRC reports on two occasions are contradictory. The first report says that only monorail would suit a city like Kozhikode with so many sharp curves and uneven topography. In the second report, the agency has taken a U-turn in favour of light metro,” environmentalist A. Achuthan pointed out in a public discussion on ‘Light Metro’ organised by the Kerala Sastra Sahitya Parishad (KSSP) on Tuesday.
Dr. Achuthan pointed out that the DMRC failed to answer the questions of the natives regarding the environmental and sociological impact of the project.
“The DMRC has brushed aside our anxieties regarding accessibility to the proposed stations, the waste that will be produced during construction, the issues connected to road widening, rehabilitation of the people who would be displaced, parking issues or waste management. It considers the difficulty posed to normal flow of traffic in the city during the construction phase as collateral damage,” he said.
No requirement now
Besides, Kozhikode is not expected to have the population that would require a metro rail project at least until 2050, Dr. Achuthan noted.
KSSP former president K. Sreedharan said that Kozhikode could do without a metro rail project for the time being by widening some of the roads, adding a few flyovers and round-abouts at strategic places. “This place is not yet a metro. Let us think about a metro rail when Kozhikode requires it,” he said.
Dr. Achuthan said that metro rail was supposed to bring down vehicle density and thus traffic congestion, but it did not happen in Delhi or any other cities. Many cities are dropping such projects as they find it too expensive to maintain, he said.
The meeting pointed out that decentralisation and decongestion was the motto of good town planning. Yet the attempts were to congest the city more through such projects. The KSSP concluded that more discussions and planning were needed before the light metro project was implemented. It plans to request the government not to hurry with the project.
