Kochi: The wait is finally getting over. The Kochi Metro will zoom throgh the 13-km long Aluva-Palarivattom section by the middle of April making it the fastest metro system to be commissioned in the country. A high-level meeting chaired by Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan and attended by senior officials of Delhi Metro Rail Corporation and the Kochi Metro Rail Ltd in Thiruvananthapuram on Monday decided to start the commercial operation from April itself.
The chief minister had asked the metro authorities in the last review meeting in December to seriously consider finishing the construction in the 18-km Aluva-Maharaja's College stretch first before commencing the commercial operations. He had pointed out that the services till Palarivattom will further congest the city as the metro commuters will have to find another mode of transport to travel to the city and back. However, the metro authorities wanted the service to be started in the Aluva-Palarivattom stretch as early as possible.
“The state government gave us the nod to start the services by next month. The construction in the 13- km Aluva-Palarivattom section will be over by March 31 itself. Thereafter, the Commissioner of Railway Safety (CRS) will inspect the stretch by the first week of April and give the final approval. Only after that we can fix the inauguration date,” said Mr E. Sreedharan, Principal Advisor, DMRC, after the meeting held at the chief minister’s office. “When we open the Aluva-Palarivattom section, a distance of 13 km, that will be the fastest first section to be opened in any metro in the country with the construction completed in a record time of three years and nine months.
