Tripunithura bus terminal dropped
The survey and the project report were also completed
Kochi: The Tripunithura Municipality has scrapped an ambitious project to set up a modern bus transit terminal spread over 12 acres of land near the Trippunithura railway station.
The municipality had even allotted Rs 50 crore in the municipal budget early this year to realise the project mooted a decade ago to decongest the royal town.
“The project cost has shot up to Rs 293 cr including the acquisition of the entry path to the proposed site. Though we hoped to implement the project through the PPP (Public-Private-Partnership) mode, no private parties evinced interest despite our best efforts,” said Municipality Chairman R Venugopal.
The bus stand was slated to come hardly 200 metres away from the proposed metro station at Irumbanam route. The survey and the project report were also completed. Though a meeting of private investors was held, the municipality failed to find potential investors.
Besides solving traffic woes, the project upon its realization was expected to offer passengers an inter-connectivity facility.
“Now most of the main trains stop at the railway station. The Kochi metro rail will have its terminal station on the nearby SAIL land which means commuters could have inter-connectivity facility,” said V C Jayendran, secretary of the Tripunithura Rajanagari Union of Residents’ Associations.