Kerala: Railways moots easy connectivity

Kochi: The railways has taken the initiative of providing commuters seamless connectivity with the Ernakulam bus station and the upcoming Kochi Metro station with the South railway station by constructing a high-end walkway. A high-level meet attended by District Collector K Muhammed Y Safirullah, MLA Hibi Eden and MP K V Thomas held the other day decided to take up the project to be fully funded by the railways.

“Basically the project is about constructing a high-end walkway from the Ernakulam KSRTC bus stand to South railway station and then extending it to the South Metro station. Upon its realization, commuters need to walk only 500 metres from the bus stand to reach the railway station and another 200 metres to catch metro trains when it begins operation in the section,” Safirullah told DC.

The district collector will facilitate the co-ordination between the various agencies including the Kerala State Road Transport Corporation (KSRTC) and the Kochi Corporation. “We intend to develop the road behind the Karikkamury bus stand and then construct a 500-metre high-end walkway. For this we will have to get the No Objection Certificate from the Kochi Corporation and the KSRTC. We have already written to these agencies. The project is being mooted as part of developing the South railway station into international standards,” said a senior railway official.

Currently, commuters have to travel three kms from the KSRTC bus stand to reach the South railway station. At a later stage, there are also plans to further extend the Karikkamury road to link with the Ernakulam Town railway station. “Railways has agreed to issue a NOC for activities such as construction, survey and development in the two-km stretch that passes through the side of the Ambedkar stadium parallel to the railway tracks,” the official said. Earlier this month, a team of officials from the Rail Land Development Authority (RLDA) and National Building Construction Corporation (NBCC) conducted inspections at the South station, thereby kicking off the station development process. “KITCO has been entrusted with the formation of the project plan and the RLDA and the NBCC will implement the station redevelopment project,” the railway official said.