Non-motorised transport projects in Kochi remain incomplete

The alleged delay in clearing encroachments on arterial roads and in acquiring small tracts of land has resulted in the redevelopment of drains, footpaths, and allied infrastructure on Kaloor-Kadavanthra Road (KK Road) and a couple of other arterial roads coming to a grinding halt.

They were taken up years ago under a French-aided ₹111-crore non-motorised transport (NMT) project. The project was envisaged on either side of the Aluva-Thripunithura metro corridor and included key arterial roads like KK Road and Hospital Road.

KK Road, owned by the Greater Cochin Development Authority (GCDA), has even otherwise been hogging headlines for the wrong reasons due to the alleged delay on the part of the government in according sanction to execute a ₹2.50-crore resurfacing work. This also attracted the ire of the Kerala High Court, with a few motorists who met with accidents after they were caught unawares by the potholes seeking the court’s intervention to make it a safe and motorable corridor.

Incomplete NMT work

While the road ought to be maintained by the GCDA, the agency had temporarily handed over drains and footpaths on either side to Kochi Metro Rail Limited (KMRL) for being redeveloped as part of the metro agency’s NMT project that was aided by AFD, a French agency that had extended a loan for the metro’s Aluva-MG Road-Thripunithura phase one project. As such, only 70 % of the redevelopment work is over.

Sources in the GCDA said that KMRL “ran out of funds” on completing 70% of the redevelopment work. “It is now up to either the GCDA or the Kochi Corporation, to whom the GCDA is expected to hand over KK Road, to complete the rest of the NMT project. For this, either of these agencies would have to acquire small tracts of land at eight places in the corridor and also remove encroachers. KMRL could easily have completed NMT works on rest of the stretches on either side of Katrikadavu bridge,” they added.

Meanwhile, KMRL sources said the funds that AFD had allotted for the NMT project had lapsed due to delay on the part of the GCDA in handing over the necessary land and in clearing encroachers at a few places. “There is little progress, though meetings were held in this regard,” they said.

KMRL hopeful

KMRL’s Managing Director Loknath Behera said that the metro agency was trying to get ‘unspent’ NMT funds from AFD. “Once we get the funds, some of the unfinished projects will be attended to,” he added.

KMRL’s NMT project on the Manorama Junction-Vyttila-Pettah stretch too is incomplete due to undue delay on the part of the Kochi Corporation and the Public Works department in clearing encroachments.