Title - Metro: Survey on parking soon

A joint survey will be conducted next week by officials of Kochi Metro Rail Ltd (KMRL) and CUSAT School of Manage-ment Studies (SMS) at proposed sites for metro stations to finalise the findings of a study on parking. “Without parking space, the very purpose of the metro project, i.e. to encourage more people to travel in metro trains as opposed to using their personal vehicles, will be defeated. SMS has completed the study. Before finalising the recommendations, we’ll be jointly conducting a physical verification of the locations next week,” KMRL sources said. The initial plan had no provisions for parking spaces but then changes were made to accommodate these and SMS was entrusted with the task of determining the expected commuter volume and the parking space to be built at each station.“The plan is to go for comparatively large parking spaces in the city stations without taking the cost factor into account as the study points out that there is a possible trend of four-wheel users constituting the majority of metro commuters,” they said. Meanwhile, ‘metro man’ E. Sreedharan met district collector P.I. Sheik Pareeth on Thursday and held discussions about the Kochi metro project and the progress of work on the Go-shree bridges that the DMRC is constructing. “Sreedharan informed me that the main work is at the tendering stage and that the designing (of viaducts) is over. He said that the DMRC would start work on the main construction immediately after the required land is handed over to them. We hope to complete the land acquisition process within a short period now that the urgency clause has received the nod of revenue commissioner,” Pareeth said. The design of the crucial elevated viaducts for the Kochi metro project is similar to that used in the Airport Express line of the Delhi metro. The DMRC has already conducted test piling work for the construction of viaduct pillars in the Karikkamury parking grounds.