KOCHI: The second day of Kochi Metro was memorable for the differently-abled and the elderly from a handful of homes in the city. The Social Welfare Department took 450 differently-abled children, 130 inmates of different institutions under it and 20 children from the institution ‘Our Responsibility to Children’ in four batches from the Kalamassery to Aluva station of the Metro from morning 9 to noon. Organized by the Centre For Empowerment and Enrichment, a large number of volunteers from it and the Kochi Metro, helped the children who included visually challenged, to board the train. The children carried colourdul balloons. Celebrities also joined the ride.
To celebrate the occasion a cake in the shape of the metro was brought in and the Minister for Social Welfare K. K. Shailaja cut it and shared among the participants in the morning. The Minister also took time to take selfies with the riders in the day. The Kalamassery station witnessed a festive mood from morning itself and it was celebration all the way for the participants including the blind who touched the window panes to feel the Metro train, which was a moving scene for the elders and volunteers who joined to assist them in the journey.
Thirty-six of them were on wheelchairs and septuagenarian Kanchavalli from Fort Kochi Veli symbolized the spirit of the elderly as she scaled the stairs of the Metro station at Kalamassery with zest. “I feel like being on a flight journey though I am yet to board a flight. It is lovely seeing Kochi city from this metro train,” said another elderly as they passed to Aluva via Pulinchodu.
