Kerala Chief Minister Oommen Chandy on Friday inaugurated the construction works for the Kochi Metro Rail, a Rs5,181-crore project aimed at permanently solving the traffic problems of the State’s commercial capital and described as the forerunner of the big-ticket infrastructure development initiatives to be implemented in the future.
The Metro rail system, being constructed by the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) under the supervision of Metro Man E Sreedharan, is expected to be ready for commissioning within three years. The project was conceived almost a decade back but work on it got delayed due to various reasons, mainly the difficulties in getting the necessary clearances.
Chandy said that Sreedharan had already assured the Government that the project could be completed in 1,095 days from Friday. As per the present plan, the Kochi Metro would cover 25.612 km from Aluva to Pettah. The system would have 22 stations. A decision on extending the system to the Kochi airport and other areas would be taken after necessary studies, he said.
Stating that Kerala had already embarked on a journey through top-level modern infrastructure development, Chandy said that work on the proposed monorail systems in Thiruvananthapuram and Kozhikode would start at the earliest. He added that the Government had already given administrative sanction for works worth Rs 5,000 for these projects.