Traders along Civil Line Road to launch protest

Traders along the badly maintained and pothole-riddled Civil Line Road are gearing up for a protracted struggle starting with a road siege over the impact of the current state of the road on their businesses.

As per the Kakkanad unit of the Kerala Vyapari Vyavasayi Ekopana Samithi (KVVES), there are 500 to 600 traders along Civil Line Road and its immediate bylanes where also business remains hit owing to a cascading effect. The organisation has been flooded with complaints from the affected members.

“A majority of shops risk closure if the situation persists. The condition is worse than what the trading community along MG Road faced during the metro work there. Here, the problems are galore, from potholed and inundated roads to a lack of parking spaces for customers. Loading and unloading materials along this narrow stretch are near impossible,” said A.R. Dayanandan, general secretary of the Kakkanad unit of the KVVES. Though Kochi Metro Rail Limited (KMRL) does patchworks when approached, it hardly makes any difference, he added.

The Thrikkakara Development Forum rued how a proposal to improve 36 associated roads and nine junctions based on a National Transportation Planning and Research Centre (NATPAC) survey handed over to the government ahead of the launch of construction of the Infopark stretch of the metro continued to be overlooked.

“Apart from Civil Line Road, improvement of Seaport-Airport Road, Ernakulam-Aluva Janatha Road, and Edappally Toll-Vallathol Nagar-Pookkattupady Road are also equally critical to decongest traffic due to metro work,” said M.S. Anilkumar, general convenor of the Forum.

“A signal-less roundabout at Collectorate Junction in Kakkanad is another significant development required. This could be done by acquiring land on the 700-metre stretch from Collectorate Junction to Alakapuri Hotel to widen the road by five metres. Acquisition should not be a problem since puramboke land is available there,” he added.