Kochi: After much delay, the authorities have started land acquisition process for the Rs 290-crore Tripunithura Mini hub project, an integrated transit terminal acting as a converging point of the Kochi Metro, the railways and the transport buses.
“The Vytilla Tahsildar was appointed by the Collector as special officer for the LA process. We’ve marked the alignment and the process is expected to be completed in six months. An estimate of Rs 101 crore was prepared for the entire process including compensation to landowners and Ecological and Social Impact study,” said Chandrika Devi, chairperson, Tripunithura Municipality.
Under the project, a total of 12.90 acre will be acquired in total for setting up a modern bus terminal and the proposed Kochi Metro station near Tripunithura railway station.
“The municipality will be acquiring only 10.17 acre and the remaining land will be taken by the Kochi Metro Rail Ltd for setting up their facilities. It was decided that the same amount of compensation will be provided by both the agencies to land owners,” she added.
A meeting was held on Friday in which the 24 land owners were briefed about the land necessity.
Special sanction has been obtained to acquire land under ‘Wetland’ category. Individual compensation rate will be prepared soon based on land category and quantity.
“We’ll seek state government’s help to raise the fund through means like external borrowing. The social impact study of the project will begin in a few weeks time,” Chandrika Devi said.
The state government has already approved the revised Detailed Project Report submitted by the KMRL for the extension of Kochi Metro service to Tripunithura railway station (1.2 km).
“If Kochi Metro is extended from the SN Junction to near the railway station as demanded then it will facilitate convergence of multiple transport modes and will have the potential to be developed into a major transit hub. This will also ensure that Tripunithura live up to its potential as the eastern entry to the city,” said V.C. Jayendran, convener, Thrippunithura Rajanagari Union of Residents' Associations.
