The residents of Vypeen are all set to go on the warpath seeking extension of the Kochi metro rail.
With a demand to include the region in the second phase of metro rail’s extension, the islanders will submit a formal request next week to the Kochi Metro Rail Limited, Chief Minister Oommen Chandy and Union Minister for Urban Development M. Venkaiah Naidu to assess the feasibility of extending the network to Vypeen. A panel of experts will also meet the KMRL authorities.
The step comes in the wake of the long-pending demand for improving the transportation networks between the Kochi city and the islands in and around it.
“Too much focus is on linking places such as Nedumbassery and Angamaly with the metro lines, but what about Vypeen that sends about one third of its population to the city everyday,” asked Vypeen MLA S.Sarma, who spearheads the campaign. There was no reason to overlook Vypeen’s claim as it contributed about 60 per cent of the workforce employed in various projects progressing in Kochi, he added.
According to him, the authorities should conduct a feasibility study into the possibility of establishing the metro lines along the Eastern coast line of the island. ``Given the density of population here, establishing the rail link by that way will cut down the area of land to be acquired from private individuals’’, he pointed out.
C.D. Deshikan, chairman of the Metro Rail Action Council and vice-president of the Vypeen Block Panchayat, said the island had emerged as a logistics and infrastructure hub with a multitude of projects from Vallarpadam Container Terminal to LNG terminal. This has spawned a proliferation in residential projects, which, in turn, will ensure a dedicated clientele for Kochi Metro,” he said.
As per estimates by the council, roughly 75,000 persons commute on a daily basis to Kochi from Vypeen while the daily average number of bus services between the two destinations is around 150. “The project will benefit residents of as many as eight panchayats, including Njarakkal, Elamkunnapuzha and Mulavukadu.”
