Kerala

Infrastructure fails to keep pace with growing city

Photo: H. Vibhu

CHOCK-A-BLOCK: The city streets are scenes of constant traffic jams these days.

KOCHI: Kochi’s image as a city of high growth potential has helped the real estate to grow, but the implementation of several infrastructure projects in the city has been on a slow pace. While some of the international projects initiated in the city have a time-frame for completion, the uncertainty over the infrastructure projects remains a matter of concern.

The work on the rail connectivity to the Vallarpadam container terminal has suffered major setbacks with the acquisition of land running into trouble. The issue pertaining to evictees at Moolampilly, one of the localities situated along the proposed route, had snowballed into a controversy. Though a scheme was drawn up to settle the issue, discontent has not totally died down.

The road project to connect the container terminal too has met with major roadblocks. The residents of Vaduthala, a place along the planned road, had opposed the route right from the beginning.

Traffic blocks continue to plague the city roads with no immediate solution in sight. While none seems to be able to control the increase in the number of automobiles on the road, traffic bottlenecks remain a major hurdle in the city’s path of progress. Though the district administration had drawn up a plan for widening MG Road, it could not be implemented satisfactorily. The Metro-rail project, even after two years of formal conceptualisation, remains on paper. The opposition from a group of merchants along MG Road is posing a threat to the project which had raised high hopes of easing traffic snarls. While talks are said to be in progress to sort out the issue, none is sure of the final word from the authorities. Flyovers that characterise many of the modern cities have failed to get established in the city.

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