A preliminary project report on the construction of a terminal-cum-railway station on 110 acres of mostly unused railway land at Ponnurunni will be handed over to the General Manager of the Southern Railway within a week, it was decided at a high-level meeting convened at the Government Guest House here on Saturday, under the chairmanship of Hibi Eden, MP.
This will be followed by preparation of a master plan and detailed project report (DPR). The long-pending proposal to make optimal use of the prime land owned by the Railway got an impetus after Mr. Eden met Union Railway Minister Piyush Goyal on Wednesday and submitted a memorandum to him. Soon after, the Minister instructed officials to reconsider the proposal that was kept in cold storage for the past many years.
The project is crucial to decongest the saturated Ernakulam Junction and Town railway stations, since more trains are expected once track doubling gets completed in Kottayam and Alappuzha.
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18 platforms
The sprawling compound now has a marshalling yard, two pit lines and tracks. A third pit line is under construction. There is space on the compound for 18 platforms and six pit lines. Making optimal use of the premises would considerably help speed up train movement and also pave the way for more trains to pass through Ernakulam. It would give an image boost to Kochi too, said Mr. Eden.
The senior Railway officials who were present at the meeting said rail infrastructure on the 110-acre premises could be developed in a phased manner. The feasibility of widening existing roads and creating new ones from nearby arterial roads to the premises was also discussed. Mr. Eden assured the officials that he would apprise the State government of the need for road connectivity to the locale.
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