Kerala - Kochi   

Railways yet to complete work on project

By Our Staff Reporter

KOCHI, APRIL 19. The Greater Cochin Development Authority (GCDA) is waiting for the Southern Railway to complete work on the eastern entry project to the Ernakulam South railway station.

The Authority had completed the 40,000-sq-ft. building almost a year ago. Initially, the Southern Railway had been in a hurry to implement the project. However, things had slowed down since the completion of the building, said the GCDA chairman, Antony Isaac.

The eastern entry to the Ernakulam South Railway station had been mooted as one of the key solutions to ease the traffic congestion on the South over-bridge. It is also one of the revenue-generating projects that the GCDA had taken up recently.

On their part, the railway authorities maintain that the work on the project would be completed by the end of this month. Work on constructing the 480-metre new platform and extending the existing foot over-bridge to the eastern side are going on. The new platform, the sixth one at the station, could be used to handle the passenger trains, while main platforms could be marked out for long distance express trains, railway authorities point out.

But, the new entry cannot be commissioned unless the premises are developed adequately, which involves creating proper parking facilities, said the railway authorities. "We have already identified the space required for it and we need only 15 days' time to do the marking out. We would be able to complete it once they inform us about the tentative date of commissioning," said Prof. Isaac.

The GCDA has already earmarked Rs. 35 lakhs for procurement of the remaining land around the building and Rs. 90 lakhs for road and parking area development in their budget proposals for 2003-04.

The problem with the Authority was that it took up many non-rewarding projects and that has depleted its resources, Prof. Isaac said. The GCDA could rent out three top floors in the newly constructed building after handing over the ground floor to the Railway.

However, the Authority is not pinning high hopes on this project, as there is no demand for space at this building at present. "We would issue tenders for renting out the space only after demand is generated, otherwise it would not be a good proposition for us," Prof. Isaac said.

"We had forwarded a proposal for constructing a foot over-bridge, parallel to the one inside the railway station, connecting the eastern side of the station with the western side. This would have converted the eastern side into a natural extension of the established business centre at the other end and accelerated the development of this side. We had suggested that the GCDA, Kochi Corporation and Railways could construct the over-bridge together. However, the other two players have not responded to this," he added.

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