Vaduthala railway over bridge still in limbo

KOCHI: The proposal for setting up a railway over bridge (RoB) at Vaduthala has not made any progress even more than three months after Finance Minister T.M. Thomas Isaac allocated Rs 35 crore for it in the state budget presented in June. The Action Council for Vaduthala over Bridge, formed to speed up the project,   is also clueless about the current status of the project. “We are planning to meet Elias George, Managing Director of the Kochi Metro Rail Ltd, soon to have a clear idea of the status of the project”, says VS Somanthan, General Secretary of the Action Council.

A meeting scheduled with Mr. George on Friday was postponed due to technical issues, he added.     The Council submitted a memorandum to Public Works Minister G. Sudhakaran on September 29, 2016 to entrust the work of the project to Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) for its timely completion. “People of Ernakulam are familiar with the bitter experience of projects not taking off despite budgetary allocations”, the memorandum said. In 2010, Rs 95 cr was allocated for RoB in Pachalam but nothing happened and finally the people came together to form an action committee in 2013 demanding implementation. 

The RoB project at Atlantis has been a non-starter despite the allocation of Rs 35 cr in the 2010 budget, it was pointed out. The Action Council said that entrusting the work to DMRC was the only guarantee for timely completion. “DMRC has completed the Pachalam RoB for Rs 39 cr, saving Rs 13 cr from the original estimate of Rs 52.7 cr”, the memorandum pointed out. The traffic snarls in Vaduthala railway gate area is expected to worsen with the completion of the Elamakkara-Perandoor Bridge, the memorandum stated.