Title - Metro: no clarity on land requirement

How much land requires to be acquired for the Kochi Metro Rail project remains uncertain, since the alignment of the route and areas the metro stations need are yet to be finalised.Officially, 32 hectares was to be acquired, of which 15 hectares is government land. A good share of land set to be acquired will be to house the stations. It is unclear if all of them will have pay-and-park lots adjacent to them.

Parking lots

While the detailed project report prepared by the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) mentions the need for spacious parking lots at Aluva and Pettah, the terminal stations, a study done by the School of Management Studies of the Cochin University of Science and Technology (Cusat) for Kochi Metro Rail Ltd. (KMRL) cites the need to have them adjacent to each station. This is primarily to allow commuters from side roads to park their vehicles at the nearest station and board the metro, KMRL sources said.The KMRL intends to relocate a few bus stops so that metro commuters can easily take buses.

Sharp curves

While the KMRL cites the need to smoothen six sharp curves along the alignment from Aluva, via Mahatma Gandhi Road, to Pettah, the DMRC insists that only the curve at Jos Junction needs to be altered. The metro alignment at the junction has a 90-metre radius now and this has to be increased to 120 metres so that the trains can safely negotiate the curve. It has to be seen if other curves have to be straightened, DMRC sources said.

They said the agency was awaiting the details of the study done by Cusat on metro stations. The land requirements were given to the KMRL and the District Collector. A total of 1.7 hectares will be required for widening narrow portions of the Aluva-Edapally stretch of the National Highway, which was not mentioned in the detailed project report prepared by the DMRC.

“Two-lane traffic has to be ensured in each direction when work on the metro pillars is on, and some narrow portions may have to be widened,” C.T. Abraham, Project Director, Kochi, of the National Highways Authority of India, said.

Another crucial road awaiting widening is the extremely narrow Vytilla-Pettah road. Land acquisition has been delayed here because a few landowners are against widening the road to 30 metres.

Fifty-five hectares is scheduled to be acquired for establishing a metro village at Muttom, near Aluva, while eight hectares has been earmarked in Kakkanad for developing a business hub.

February 2013 has been set as the deadline to acquire the sites required for the metro. The survey process can begin only if the alignment is finalised. The compensation will be decided by the tahsildar’s report. The market value of land is suggested now, while tenants are given three months to vacate, sources associated with the land-acquisition process said.

The land required to widen the Town Hall-Madhava Pharmacy Junction stretch, Mahatma Gandhi Road and the Jos Junction-Ernakulam South Railway Station road to four lanes is expected to be acquired by November, for which 58 owners have given the letter of consent. A land acquisition official said that the government had so far given only about Rs. 15 crore of the approximately Rs. 80 crore required to compensate landowners.