The 72-acre premises that house Mattancherry Halt and Cochin Harbour Terminus Station (CHTS) located on Willingdon Island too is unused. The area comes alive only when a few dozen goods trains call at the port every year. “The tracks here can be used as pitlines for maintenance of trains. A flyover or underpass at Vathuruthy will help trains to call at the stations sans holding up traffic at the level crossing. The premises can be used as a terminal hub for trains if the Ernakulam Junction-CHTS corridor is electrified, for which Navy’s sanction is awaited,” KRDCL sources said. The recently-renovated CHTS station has fallen into disuse following withdrawal of the DEMU train that operated from here to Ernakulam Junction for 10 days.
The third parcel of land that will decongest stations in Ernakulam and speed up train movement through Kerala is the 110-acre land owned by Southern Railway in the Kathrikadavu-Ponnurunni area. The KRDCL had in December 2017 entrusted RITES with the feasibility of converting it into the State’s rail transit hub.
Prior to this, railway officials had submitted a preliminary report to Thiruvananthapuram Division authorities to convert the under-utilised land located in the heart of Kochi into an ‘Integrated coach terminal-cum-railway station’ with upto 15 tracks. If realised, the huge area covered with weeds and tress would pave the way for a station bigger than Ernakulam Junction.
Developing it as a rail hub will also enable commuters to take a short ride up to Vyttila Mobility Hub located a kilometre away - an inter-modal hub for buses, Kochi metro and ferries. Trains from here can have five-minute stoppages at Ernakulam Junction and Town stations, a KRDCL official said.