Kochi: Charging that the proposed plan to extend Kochi Metro to Tripunithura has been put under cold storage, local residents staged a protest dharna on Saturday even as local MLA M. Swaraj alleged a conspiracy from certain quarters to exclude the temple town from the metro map. “Earlier, metro authorities fully assured about extending the Kochi Metro to Tripunithura. The plan has even got the state and central government nods. However, messages coming from the same quarters are not encouraging in the last few months. Hence, residents have started a second string of protests. The first one was for approval of the project extension,” said Mr M. Swaraj while speaking at the protest venue at Statue Junction.
The residents also demanded that the metro should be extended from Pettah to Tripunithura railway station instead of the current approved SN Junction. “Upon extending the same, a lot many people will benefit since already the railway station already witness a higher footfall of commuters. As per the railway estimate, the monthly collection has gone as high as Rs 80 lakh.
The municipality also plans a modern bus terminal near the railway station,” said V.P. Prasad, president, Trippunithura Rajanagari Union of Residents Association (Trura). The Kochi Metro Rail Ltd (KMRL) has already planned to set up an inter-mediate hub at Tripunithura as part of its proposed Comprehensive Mobility Plan for the district. Even, land acquisition in the Vytilla-Pettah stretch has suffered inordinate delay due to land acquisition issues.
