KOCHI: The Kochi Metro is not a panacea for the acute traffic menace faced by the city, said Justice K Narayana Kurup on Tuesday. “The sole solution to the gruesome traffic snarl is to have more flyovers. The government can even think of building subways at the main centres in the city. What we need is long-term planning than temporary arrangements. Engineers and policymakers should device socially and commercially viable solutions to the city’s transportation issues,” said the former judge of Kerala High Court.“Thousands of new vehicles flow into the city roads each year. The metro rail cannot force people owning vehicles to travel by rail. Flyovers and subways are the need of the hour than the metro rail,” he added.“The Metro Rail doesn’t look to be commercially viable as the estimated cost has already gone up to Rs 5,000 crore and may exceed the budget as the work progresses. After investing so much, the metro may charge high fares which the layman cannot afford,” he said."Kochi is yet to become a metropolitan city and lakhs of people should make use of the system on a daily basis to make the project a profitable one. Instead of spending thousands of crores on building a metro rail, the already existing track from Aluva to Tripunithura can be utilised wisely by strengthening the existing tracks and improving the signal systems. They can also increase the number of coaches in the existing trains or Mainline Electrical Multiple Unit (MEMU) trains can be introduced. Increasing the frequency of trains in the existing line will be a boon for people travelling to the city,” he said.
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