Metro will put Kochi on fast track: Sreedharan

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posted on 12 years ago — updated on 1 second ago

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Within five years of the operation of the Kochi Metro, we should be able to transfer 20 per cent of the project cost to the public through improvement in the quality of life, said E Sreedharan, Principal Advisor of the DMRC.

“Within five years of the operation of the Kochi Metro, we should be able to transfer 20 per cent of the project cost to the public through improvement in the quality of life,” said E Sreedharan, Principal Advisor of the DMRC.

“Even if just 10 per cent of population on the roads shifts to the Metro Rail, we will be able to save about 20 lives every year and 100 grievous injuries. Every year, the city loses 180 lives to road accidents, and around 1,200 persons suffer from grievous injuries. With the Kochi Metro Rail, we hope to transfer as much as 60 per cent of the traffic on the roads to the Metro,” he said.

Outlining the benefits of the Metro, Sreedharan added that, on an average, each commuter can save about 24 minutes of travel time. “Besides, the pollution in the city can be reduced by seven tonnes per day, and 15,000 tonnes of fuel can be saved per annum. The traffic carried by the Metro in one day is equivalent to that of 1,000 buses on the roads,” he said. Punctuality will be another highlight of the Metro. “The Delhi Metro has been running at a record precision of 60 seconds in 99.7 cases in the last year,” said Sreedharan.

Trains will be available every two-and-a-half minute. In the initial stages, the train will have three coaches. All the Metro stations will be provided with elevators, and each will be differently-abled friendly. “Tactile tiles will be provided for the visuallychallenged, which will enable them to travel from the entrance to the Metro without any dependence,” he said. Meanwhile, Sreedharan added that parking spaces might prove to be non-viable for the Metro. “Even for 500 cars, we will require a great deal of parking space, but at the end of the day, it will add just about 500 persons more to the Metro.

This is an insubstantial number for a system with commuters in lakhs, and hence the huge costs incurred for the land will be non-viable. Instead, feeder buses and cycles that could transport commuters over small distances to the Metro will be encouraged,” he said. Sreedharan also reiterated that there are provisions to extend the Metro to Kakkanad, Tripunithura and Mattancherry, among other places.