Concern over delay in widening Civil Line Road for metro’s Kakkanad extension

Kochi Metro's Kakkanad extension faces delays due to incomplete road widening, encroachments, and utility posts. Commuters suffer long delays due to traffic hold-ups. KMRL is working to complete road widening, develop alternative roads, and build drains and ducts. 90% of pre-casting work is done and stations are being developed. Revised plan to be given to District Collector in a month. Extension expected to be ready by Nov 2024.

Commuting through Civil Line Road, through which the Kochi metro’s 11.20-km Kakkanad extension will be constructed, is becoming increasingly difficult since several buildings that were acquired for the purpose have not been dismantled, and utility posts and transformers have not been relocated.

This is apart from the inordinate delay in clearing permanent and semi-permanent encroachments, even as the arterial road is scheduled to be barricaded to build the Kakkanad extension. Kochi Metro Rail Limited (KMRL) had said that the road would be developed as a 22-metre-wide corridor prior to erecting eight-metre-wide barricades to build the metro viaduct. Black topping of the widened corridor is crucial to regulate vehicles through five metres leftover space on both sides.

“Commuters often take over an hour to cover the Kakkanad-High Court route mainly due to frequent traffic hold-ups on the Padamugal-Palarivattom-Civil Line Road stretch where widening is incomplete,” said Raju Paul, a frequent commuter in the corridor. Apart from completing road widening, speedy measures must be taken to develop alternative roads to divert vehicles as had been done for the metro’s Aluva-Pettah phase one project.

Traders and autorickshaw and bus operators’ unions too were critical of the delay in widening the corridor that linked the city with Kakkanad. Among the reasons that had been attributed till recently was the State government’s delay in handing over compensation to landowners.

Meanwhile, KMRL sources said 90% of the work to build drains and ducts on either side of Civil Line Road was over. “Much of the pre-casting work too is over. Posts and transformers are being relocated, following which the road widening work will be completed in a month,” they added.

As for the progress of work on metro stations, piling for the CEPZ station is over, while the entry and exit work of Chittetukara, Infopark and Kinfra stations has been awarded, they said.

On concerns about Chembumukku and Padamugal stations being dropped due to opposition to land acquisition, the sources said the stations would be developed, albeit on a lesser scale. A revised plan based on the survey for reduced extent of land needed for the stations will be given to the District Collector in a month.