New Delhi

Planning Commission delegation to visit Kochi

NEW DELHI: A three-member team of the Union Planning Commission handling transport, urban development and infrastructure will visit Kochi next week to study the proposed Metro Rail project.

This was decided at a meeting of officials of the Planning Commission and a Kerala government team led by Chief Secretary P.J. Thomas here on Friday. Chairman of the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC), which prepared the project report, E. Sridharan also took part.

The rail link will be for 27 km and the train will have sleek railway stations, state-of-the-art air-conditioned coaches and an automatic fare collection system.

It will ply between Aluva and Thripunithura and have halts at Edapally, Palarivattom, Kaloor, MG Road, Ernakulam Junction railway station, SA Road and Vyttila.

John L. Paul writes from Kochi: The meeting was attended among others by Union Urban Development Secretary M. Ramachandran, State Transport Secretary K.R. Jyotilal, Ernakulam Collector M. Beena and some other senior officials.

Mr. Ramachandran said the officials from the State convinced the Planning Commission about the traffic snarls in Kochi which lacked a good mass-rapid transport system. “The commission will now look for resources to finance the project. It was suggested at the meeting that the State and Central governments pool in funds in the ratio 10:10 and the balance 80 per cent be taken as loan from the Japan Bank for International Cooperation (JBIC).”

He said there was no doubt about the viability of the project. The commission was expected to arrive at a conclusion in a fortnight, after the Kochi visit. The advantage of taking a loan from the JBIC is that there is an initial moratorium period on the repayment of the loan. The interest rate is also low. The earlier proposal was to raise the balance 45 per cent amount as a loan from the JBIC. The Union Urban Development Ministry had recommended to the Planning Commission to take up the project without delay.

The commission’s nod for the Metro Rail would hasten the laying of demarcation stones to acquire land between the Town Hall Junction and the Ernakulam Junction railway station.

The demarcation drive was stalled a few months ago after merchants along the MG Road opposed the move. An official in the Revenue Department said that the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation had estimated that 10 hectares of government (and ‘puramboke’) land and 15 hectares of private land would have to be acquired along the 25-km alignment between Aluva and Pettah. Another 10 hectares would have to be set apart at Muttom, near Aluva, for a depot where construction materials could be stored.

© Copyright 2000 - 2009 The Hindu