Piling for the Kochi metro’s Kakkanad extension, which was expected to begin in January 2023, is likely to be delayed as the State government has not yet handed over the approximately ₹100 crore that is needed for land acquisition.
This has prompted traders and others, whose land will be taken over, to intensify their stir demanding speedy payment of compensation. Kochi Metro Rail Limited (KMRL) had said in September 2022 that the construction of the 11.20-km metro viaduct in the Jawaharlal Nehru International Stadium-Infopark corridor would begin in January 2023, what with approximately 75% of land being acquired to widen Civil Line Road and beyond for a 22-metre-wide road.
Faced with traffic congestion, incomplete work sites, and subsequent proliferation of slush and dust in much of the corridor, landowners and road users had been demanding speedy completion of road-widening and other preparatory work for the metro. Land will also be needed for metro stations en route. The Revenue department made it repeatedly clear that it would go ahead with land acquisition only after the State government remitted the compensation amount.
On the plight of traders, Aziz Moolayil, the Kakkanad unit president of the Vyapari Vyavasayi Ekopana Samithi (VVES), said the undue delay in land acquisition and handing over of compensation had resulted in many traders having to pay rent for the shops that would be acquired and also for those that they intended to shift to. “This is not the way to execute a mega infrastructure project, especially since the State government has been borrowing heavily. Development projects should not remain on paper. The chaos and dust in the entire corridor will worsen once summer sets in,” he added.
VVES, Ernakulam District Residents Associations’ Apex Council (EDRAAC), and people’s representatives had also been irked at KMRL not readying an action plan to develop alternative roads to divert vehicles when Civil Line Road that linked the city with the collectorate and the IT hub in Kakkanad would be barricaded for constructing the metro viaduct.
Hoping that the State government will hand over the ₹100 crore urgently needed to compensate landowners, metro sources said the viaduct construction would take a few more months to commence since the general consultant ought to ready the tender documents. “We hope to complete land acquisition by the time the tender documents are ready,” they added.