Kerala - Kochi   

Pleas to change rail, road alignments

Staff Reporter

Kochi: A Division Bench of the Kerala High Court has reserved orders on writ petitions challenging acquisition of land for laying a railway line and road to the proposed container terminal at Vallarpadom.

In their petition, V.J. Justine Thomas and others said the Rail Vikas Nigam, a technical firm of the Railways, entrusted with the preparation of the project report, had submitted four alignments for the line. The first alignment was through the unused railway route to Ernakulam Railway Goods Station, while the second proposed the line through Vaduthala. The third and fourth alignments were through South Chittur and Kalamassery, respectively, parallel to the proposed road.

In the first alignment, the track, which branched off from Pachalam to the goods station, could be connected to the terminal. It ran parallel to the Goshree bridges.

The second alignment was impractical, as it passed through densely populated Vaduthala, over more than 2.5 km of backwaters and then, cut across the Goshree bridges.

One of the three bridges would have to be demolished. If the first alignment were to be implemented, it would cause the least dislocation of people and cost less, the petition said.

In another petition, 22 residents of Cheranelloor said the road was proposed to pass through Kothala, Mulampally, Mulavukad and Paul Abrao Island.

The Centre had granted environment sanction without properly taking into account various aspects affecting the ecosystem. The area fell in Coastal Regulation Zone I

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