The Centre must prevail on the Southern Railway to take proactive steps to establish a railway transit hub on the 110 acres of mostly-unused railway land at Ponnurunni, the Metro Kochi Vikasana Samiti has demanded, in a memorandum submitted to V. Muralidharan, Union Minister of State for External Affairs, here on Sunday.
“We also requested him to visit the sprawling premises, most of which is weed-infested. He assured that he would visit the place after studying proposals under way to make optimal use of the land,” said Rajeev Menon, general secretary of the samiti.
The area holds tremendous potential to decongest Ernakulam Junction and Town stations in the city and to speed up train movements through the State, said M.K. Saseendran, president of the NGO. “We had even organised a Parliament march in 2011, demanding establishment of a railway transit hub in Ponnurunni. A memorandum was submitted to then Railway Minister Mamata Banerjee as well, seeking her intervention and highlighting the fact that plenty of Railway land is already available for this,” Mr. Saseendran said.
Following a slew of protests and a meeting between Hibi Eden, MP, and Railway Minister Piyush Goyal, the Railway had recently dusted up the proposal to make a terminal-cum-railway station on the premises. A preliminary report is awaited on this, followed by preparation of a master plan and detailed project report.