KOCHI: The construction of the Kochi Metro has been progressing at a fast pace and the state government is fully satisfied with the works, said Chief Minister Oomen Chandy. He was talking to media persons after inspecting the metro site at Pulinchodu near Aluva on Thursday.
The Chief Minister also chaired a review meeting at CIAL conference hall, Nedumbassery, which discussed various issues pertaining to the metro construction.
“The first set of coaches will be delivered in 100 days by the French manufacturing company Alstom. Steps for commissioning the project will be intensified once the coaches are delivered. The review meeting has taken necessary decisions to commission the project as per the deadline,” said Mr Chandy.
It has been decided to complete the remaining land acquisition at the earliest for which the next Cabinet meeting will resolve the legal disputes.
The next installment of funds for the project will be made available soon. The review meeting has also decided to allocate '123 crore for the preparatory works for widening the Vyttila – Petta road.
“The legislation for constituting unified metropolitan transport authority (UMTA) is under the active consideration of the government,” said the Chief Minister.
Other decisions are to reconstruct the Champakkara Bridge and construct a bay to facilitate easy access to the market at a cost of Rs 45 crore and to allocate funds for the Kakkanad line of the Metro in the next Budget.
The revenue department has already started land survey works for Kakkanad extension. The review meeting also discussed the proposal to take over 17.35 acres of land owned by the public works department at Kakkanad for the project. A decision will soon be taken on the land deal with PWD.
The Chief Minister said that the next Cabinet meeting would consider the DPR of the German bank KfW-funded water transport project for Kochi.
The review meeting was attended by ministers Aryadan Muhammad, K. Babu, V.K Ebrahim Kunju, K.V. Thomas MP, MLAs Benny Behanan, Hibi Eden, Ludy Louis, and Anwar Sadath, Mayor Tony Chammany, KMRL MD Elias George, DMRC principal advisor E. Sreedharan and other officials.
