Kochi metro’s Kakkanad extension: confusion over redeveloping bottlenecked diversion roads

KMRL faces demands to redevelop diversion roads before barricading Civil Line Road for metro viaduct construction.

Even as Kochi Metro Rail Limited (KMRL) has been citing paucity of funds as the reason for doing little to redevelop alternative roads to divert vehicles when Civil Line Road is barricaded at eight-metre width for the metro’s Kakkanad extension, there is widespread demand that diversion roads be fully redeveloped prior to erecting barricades for the metro viaduct.

The demand attains significance since KMRL on Saturday announced at a review meeting held here that all heavy goods carriers and, if need be, other vehicles would be diverted through alternative roads to avoid traffic hold-ups on Civil Line Road. Metro officials also cited the urgent need to evict encroachments from the Kochi Corporation-owned Puthiya Road and also the PWD-owned Vennala High School Road-Palachuvadu-Kakkanad stretch, which run parallel to Civil Line Road. A similar anti-encroachment drive will help clear bottlenecks on Chakkaraparambu Road and other byroads that take off eastward from the six-km-long Edappally-Vyttila NH bypass.

Officials of various agencies, people’s representatives, and office-bearers of NGOs and residents’ associations demanded in unison that the government allot funds to widen Vennala HS Junction, Palachuvadu Junction, and Alinchuvadu Junction.

While hoping that potholed parts of Puthiya Road and other roads would be repaired using metro funds, informed sources said the Kochi Corporation’s master plan spoke of the need to widen Puthiya Road and Vennala HS Road to 15 metres, considering the burgeoning number of IT professionals and others using the road to reach Infopark and the serpentine traffic hold-ups.

Meanwhile, KMRL sources hoped that the Kochi Corporation would source funds from the government to widen the two critical corridors. “We have relocated seven of the 22 electric and telecom posts on these roads that hampered free movement of vehicles. The rest will be relocated shortly. As assured by the District Collector, the Revenue department must mark the boundary of the two roads, so that encroachments can be identified and removed. KMRL would help redevelop the two roads and also others that run parallel to Civil Line Road if the government, Kochi Corporation, and the PWD played their part. This is also the ideal time for the State government to reconsider the long-overdue four-lane Chakkaraparambu-Vennala-Seaport Airport Road,” they said.

Maintaining that KMRL must write to the Kochi Corporation seeking widening of alternative roads, Mayor M. Anilkumar said the metro agency ought to work in tandem with the civic body since the impending additional influx of vehicles through byroads was due to the barricading of Civil Line Road to build the metro viaduct up to Infopark in Kakkanad.

While echoing a similar view, Vyttila division councillor Sunitha Dixon, who was till recently chairperson of the Kochi Corporation’s Works Standing Committee, expressed dismay at KMRL citing paucity of funds to redevelop diversion roads. “Then State government had a decade and a half ago allotted ample funds to redevelop byroads and build overbridges to divert vehicles when the metro’s Aluva-Pettah viaduct was built by the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation. This must be done for the metro’s Kakkanad extension also to prevent traffic being thrown into disarray,” she said.