KMRL draws up plan to revive Padmasarovaram project.

The Kochi Metro Rail Limited (KMRL) has drawn up plans to revive the Padmasarovaram project, a new public space in Kochi city, which was initially envisaged and later abandoned by the Kochi Corporation.

KMRL Managing Director Elias George said at a workshop recently that the project was being conceived as a public space and as an example of organic improvement of the water body in the area.

The proposal is for the water body and the adjoining area between Vyttila and Elamkulam linking the arterial Sahodaran Ayyappan Road and Subhash Chandra Bose Road.

Sources said that KMRL had commissioned an agency for the conceptual plan and was roping in landscapists and botanists, among other experts, for the implementation of the project.

They said that the basic concept was to introduce trees and plants to ensure organic improvement of the water quality. Public space, a walkway and cycling track that would link the space to Jawahar Nagar are other elements of the KMRL project.

Sources said that the proposed public space would come close to the metro rail alignment and it could become a destination for Kochiites and visitors to the city for recreation and relaxation.

Kochi Corporation, which drew up the first plans for Padmasarovaram around 2005, had notified the area for its development. No reason was cited for abandoning the project. It was conceived by the Centre for Heritage, Environment and Development, research and development wing of the corporation, on the lines of Ravindra Sarovaram in Kolkata.

It was a grand plan for a new public space in Kochi on its eastern side, said an official who was part of the planning in 2005. At present public spaces in Kochi city are located on its western fringes.

The project proposal had said that the entire project centred on city-level public space with the 'overriding theme of water-based plants exhibited through naturally created water bodies and sarovarams'. The proposal highlighted the centrality of water. A big Padmasarovaram in the centre in combination with smaller ponds and activity spaces would be arranged around these with connecting walking trails.

About 80 per cent of the area located for the project is marshy and low-lying, adjacent to one of the most scenic and important water channels serving the city.

The space was meant to have shaded niches to sit, play area for children, kiosks, a theatre for children and multipurpose grounds. The project was envisaged as financially sustaining through rentals of the multipurpose spaces and kiosks for commercial operations. Apart from these sources of income, the planners also envisaged the possibility of selling flowers grown in the water bodies on a selective basis.


THE HINDU