Kerala: Meet revives Railway Overbridge project plans

Kochi: The key Vathuruthy Railway Overbridge project, conceived way back in 2011 but could not be realized so far due to objection of the Navy and the Cochin Port Trust, will now be revived.

The decision towards this was taken on Sunday at a key meet initiated by K.V. Thomas MP to break deadlock over the project implementation, crucial given the railway’s plan to start train operation in the Ernakulam-Harbour Terminus line in a couple of months.

A fresh alignment for the project will be worked out in 10 days and the Port Trust will give the sanction and the land required, the meet, also attended by Mayor Soumini Jain, officials of the Port Trust, Navy, Railways, Roads and Bridges Development Corporation of Kerala (RBDCK) and PWD among others, decided.

“Earlier the RoB was planned at the Vathuruthy Level Crossing Gate area. Since it comes under the Naval airport touch down area, the Navy so far denied permission. Now the RoB is planned further away, near the Mattancherry Halt railway station. During discussions, both the Navy and the Port Trust agreed to give nod for the new site,” said Area Manager (Southern Railway) R Harikris-hnan.

“During the meet, the Cochin Port Trust Chairman P. Ravee-ndran promised to allot necessary land and also the No Objection Certificate (NoC) for the RoB project. K.V. Thomas MP will write to Railways to take up the project on a priority basis considering its plan to start train operations in the line in a month or two,” a statement said.

Currently, the National Highway 47 connecting the West Kochi and Edakochi areas cuts across the railway Line at Vathuruthy where an old iron LC gate is located. The LC gates are manually operated and consume much time to close and open, nearly 20 minutes. Once the train operations begin, it would result in heavy traffic jams in the key section.

The Port Trust too had opposed the initial RoB plan saying the 15 cents of land required for the RoB project will be handed over only if the state government hands over land at Ramanthuruthu as compensation.