Uncertainty prevails over the commencement of piling work to build the Kochi metro viaduct on the Champakkara-Pettah stretch, thanks to hassles in acquiring land.
The delay in land acquisition and rehabilitating vendors from the Champakkara market has, in turn, hit the widening of the Champakkara bridge into a four-lane stretch.
“No one knows for sure whether the work on the bridge and the metro viaduct, which will hover over it, will begin, though the awarding of contract for the two structures is in the final stage. The delay in land acquisition has prompted us to focus on civil work on the Maharaja’s College Ground - Thykoodam stretch,” said sources in Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC), which is executing the project.
A tussle between rival trade unions over taking up work on the metro’s 90-metre-long balanced cantilever (pillar-less) structure, which is coming up over the tracks at the Ernakulam Junction railway station, and the subsequent agitation too are a cause for concern.
Maintaining that there has been delay in acquiring land due to the provisions of the new Land Acquisition Act, Kochi Metro Rail Limited (KMRL) Managing Director Elias George said the district administration had promised to speed up the process. “We are keen on opening the Maharaja’s College Ground - Pettah stretch in one go and would not like to confine it to Vyttila or Thykoodam. Efforts are also being made to take the metro up to SN Junction at Thripunithura,” Mr. George added.
‘Bad management’
KMRL sources said DMRC should focus on completing the long-pending civil work on the SA Road - Vyttila Hub-Kunnara Park stretch. The contractor (Era-Ranken) has not even completed the girder launch on the 1-km-long Vyttila-Kunnara Park stretch where work began four years ago. This speaks of bad contract management, they added.
The slowdown in land acquisition has also delayed the launch of preparatory works like road-widening as part of extending the metro to Kakkanad.