Light Metro: KRTL meet gives hope to techies

Thiruvananthapuram: Giving hope to around 60,000 employees working at companies based in Technopark, state government has directed the board of Kerala Rapid Transit Corporation Ltd (KRTL) to think about an alternative or additional route for the Light Metro so that those who commute to the IT hub gets benefited from the service.
Though it has been a long-pending demand of the IT community, the proposal to include Technopark into the alignment was previously ignored by Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC), the interim consultant for the project.
The board meeting of KRTL, chaired by chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan, was convened after nearly a year. Sources said that the chief minister himself suggested the proposal to change the existing alignment by including phase I, II and III campuses of Technopark during Wednesday’s meeting. A few days ago, representatives of Group of Technology Companies (G Tech) met chief minister to apprise him of the various issued faced by IT community, where transport emerged as a major issue. In addition to air connectivity issue, IT companies also suggested that excluding IT community from the alignment of Light Metro scheme would not serve any purpose.
GTech chairman Alexander Varghese said that increased use of private vehicles would eventually make the city another Bengaluru, which is choked by vehicular traffic. “IT companies are spending crores of rupees for commutation and construction of multi-level parking lots, which are bad investment,” he said, adding that the chief minister responded positively during talks.
Though IT companies suggest to reroute the project from the current alignment from Technocity to Karamana via Kesavadasapuram to the national highway route, sources in PWD said that government might not shift the alignment entirely, but might extend an arm of the Light Metro to Technopark.
Sources said that IT companies are even ready to fund a feasibility study for the new alignment which includes Technopark. GTech in association with CII has already initiated steps to rope in an experienced consultant for an independent feasibility study.
One of the main agenda of the board meeting was to finalize the supplement to the detailed project report (DPR) which was submitted by DMRC according to the changes in the Metro policy of the government.
The supplement to DPR will be submitted to Union ministry of urban affairs only after conducting the feasibility study. The board analyzed the report prepared by a three-member committee headed by finance secretary which reviewed the supplement to DPR.
The board also discussed whether a Light Metro would be viable in Kozhikode with a low projected traffic.