Even as confusion prevails over whether the DMRC would spare its resources for the Kochi Metro Rail project, the agency’s Principal Adviser E. Sreedharan inspected a few project sites on Monday.
He also went through the paper works that the agency’s Kochi unit had prepared to kick-start the metro’s civil works and interacted with the technical team here.
A week ago, the Union Urban Development Ministry had expressed reservations about sparing the DMRC’s resources for the Kochi metro.
On Monday, Mr Sreedharan visited the North overbridge, where the DMRC is engaged in constructing a four-lane bridge in place of the two-lane one, and asked the engineers to speed up the works so that lanes one and four can be opened to traffic this month, as per schedule. Lanes two and three and the metro-rail pillars at the centre were expected to be commissioned by September 2013.
Atlantis overbridge
He also visited the site of the Atlantis overbridge, near Thevara, on Monday evening. The proposed bridge and the Salim Rajan overbridge that the DMRC intended to throw open to traffic in January, are expected to cater to vehicles that are diverted when the South overbridge is pulled down and rebuilt as a four-lane one.
Kakkanad extension
He also visited the international stadium in Kaloor where a metro station has been proposed. It is from here that the metro’s Kakkanad extension has been planned. Mr. Sreedharan is learnt to have asked DMRC officials to do a site survey for the purpose.
Mr. Sreedharan is scheduled to go to New Delhi along with Chief Minister Oommen Chandy, Transport Minister Aryadan Mohammed and the Managing Director of Kochi Metro Rail Ltd Elias George on Wednesday to discuss the situation arising out of the objections raised by the Urban Development Ministry.
Talking to reporters, Mr. Sreedharan said he would make his stand clear on the Metro rail depending on the outcome of the Delhi meeting.
Reacting to the raging controversy over Metro ail, sources associated with the project said the DMRC was already associated with the Metro, two monorails, high-speed rail corridor, three major bridges proposed on the four-lane Moolampilly-Chattanad Road. It was recently entrusted with rebuilding the bottlenecked culvert near the PVS Hospital, Kaloor.
