Kochi Metro Rail Limited okays Rs 100 crore to ease city traffic

KOCHI: The Kochi Metro Rail Limited board of directors meeting has approved a proposal for improving traffic flow at junctions and Metro station areas in the city at a total cost of Rs 100 crore. The 24th meeting of the KMRL board held in New Delhi on Tuesday chaired by Rajiv Gauba, Union Urban Development secretary and chairman of Kochi Metro Rail Ltd, discussed the project to improve traffic conditions. French funding agency Agence Francaise de Developpement (AFD) has agreed in-principle to provide loan for the project.

The proposal includes improvement of areas around 20 metro stations, provision of footpaths and drains, covered walkways, bus-bays, parking areas, pedestrian crossing, providing landscaping and greenery, improvement of major junctions like Edapally, Vyttila and Aluva apart from development of a few walkways in the city.

The board has also approved the Metro City realty development project proposed by KMRL at Kakkanad. The project aims at developing 17.32 acres of land with residential apartments and commercial complexes. The project is expected to considerably improve the revenues of KMRL. Non-traffic earning will be a major component of the Metro revenue as it is difficult to make the project profitable only through the ticket collections.

Earlier, Knight Frank, the transaction advisor agency selected by KMRL submitted a proposal for the Metro City project with plans of residential, commercial and recreational facilities. The board meeting has also agreed to constitute sub-committees for selecting a woman director, an independent director and a chief vigilance officer for KMRL.

The board approved a proposal for the procurement of an integrated Asset Management System for managing the network of assets of the Metro project. The board also reviewed the project progress and the schedule of progress for the next few months.