Condemning what the Metro Rail Road Action Committee termed as a “step-motherly treatment” in not readying a four-lane road beneath the Kochi Metro’s SN Junction-Thripunithura extension, a dharna would be organised at the site where the metro’s terminal station has been envisaged near the Thripunithura railway station, on the evening of November 1.
The action committee has been floated under the banner of Thripunithura Rajanagari Union of Residents’ Associations (TRURA), which has been spearheading the demand for adequate road connectivity beyond SN Junction till the terminal station, beneath the metro viaduct. The Ernakulam MP, Hibi Eden, would inaugurate the dharna, said K. Balachandran, its convenor.
“There are four or six-lane roads beneath rest of the metro corridor from Aluva to SN Junction. Leave alone ready land for a four-lane road, KMRL has failed to provide road connectivity to the terminal station from Hill Palace Road that is located 300 metres from the station. Moreover, the project must be implemented on the basis of its social-impact assessment (SIA) report, after taking into account demands raised by residents of the area. The prime demand is to build a proper road beneath the metro viaduct, from SN Junction, as was done in rest of the corridor”.
The SIA spoke of the need for adequate road connectivity within 1 km of the terminal station and to ready footpaths on existing roads. This was crucial since the station would be a stone’s throw away from Thripunithura railway station (and a bus stand proposed nearby). Inadequate road connectivity would result in chaos on the sole road that led to the railway station from Hill Palace Road, he said.
Responding to this, KMRL sources said a road had been planned beneath the metro corridor, up to the Thripunuithura terminal station. It would, in all probability, have 5.50 metres width on each side of the metro pillars, through which two lanes of light vehicles can travel side by side. A wider road could be realised only if the Thripunithura Municipality, which had earlier agreed for a four-lane road, pooled in with help, they said.
