Metro’s Kakkanad extension: concern at delay in widening Civil Line Road, developing alternative roads

KMRL prepares for Kakkanad metro extension piling amid demands for road widening, with AIIB loan crucial for progress.

Kochi Metro Rail Limited (KMRL) is readying to commence piling for the metro’s Kakkanad extension from mid-May, even as motorists, NGOs and residents’ or traders’ associations are demanding fast-tracking of the ongoing widening of Civil Line Road and other corridors through which the viaduct would pass though.

The long-awaited concurrence of Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) that had agreed to extend a loan for the 11.20-km extension would be crucial to kickstart the piling from mid-May, metro sources said.

As per the plan, eight metres of the road in the JLN Stadium-Infopark corridor would be barricaded in order to execute the piling work. Motorists would have to use the approximately five-metre-wide portions on either side of the Civil Line Road, where the widening process is encountering hassles mainly in the form of inordinate delay in relocating electric posts and those of private telecom players, it is learnt.

The viaduct in the JLN Stadium-Infopark corridor could be readied in another 18 months, by October 2025, if everything worked according to the plan, official sources said. It was estimated that installing signal and telecommunication system and tracks would take another six months. Metro officials were hopeful of adhering to the timeline, especially since the nine stations on the Kakkanad extension would be smaller than the stations in the Aluva-Thripunithura extension. The works to build the entry and exit of Infopark, Chittethukara, Kinfra park, Collectorate Junction and CSEZ stations were already on.

Over a month ago, Afcons Infrastructure had emerged as the lowest bidder to construct the viaduct and the nine stations, as financial bids for the project were opened.

The Thrikkakara Development Forum (TDF) has in the meantime denounced the delay by KMRL in widening the Civil Line Road and the two-km-stretch south of Collectorate Junction through which the metro viaduct would pass. IT professionals and others too were demanding development of wider access roads and footpaths to Infopark, fearing congestion when barricades were erected to construct the metro viaduct.

Expressing concern at ‘the IT hub becoming an accident hub’, M.S. Anilkumar, general convener of the forum, said the inordinate delay in completing the widening work of these roads that began about four years ago was causing accidents, including fatal ones. “This was taken up at different levels in the metro agency, and its officials attended meetings that the forum organised. Still, there is undue delay in widening the roads. KMRL is also duty bound to widen the carriageway of Pipeline Road that runs parallel to Civil Line Road, so that two, three and four wheelers can be diverted through it when piling for the metro extension begins. It must clear traffic bottlenecks on the Puthiya Road-Palachuvadu-Kakkakad corridor, another parallel road, and must also widen the tarred carriageway of Edappally-Pukattupady Road.”