DMRC starts feasibility study.

The Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC), the turnkey consultant for interim works of Light Metro, has begun work to study the feasibility of extending the 21.82-km Technocity-Karamana Mass Rapid Transit System (MRTS) corridor to Pappanamcode and for extending the flyover at Ulloor to Medical College.

Tasked by the high-level meeting chaired by Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan on July 19 to expedite the light metro, the DMRC has already collected details from the PWD, Natpac and the Kerala Road Fund Board about the Karamana bridge and road geometrics of the two-km National Highway 66 stretch from the busy Karamana to Pappanamcode.

Traffic survey will be carried out later in the proposed corridor if the initial feasibility report supports its extension, sources in the DMRC say. The Phase II of the ambitious MRTS has been proposed from Karamana to Neyyattinkara and the NH corridor is being widened with this in mind.

Extending the Tehnocity-Karamana light metro corridor from the 19th station will need only land acquisition for the 20th station at Kaimanam and the 21st station at Pappanamcode, as the widened stretch already has a median to accommodate the single piers of the sleek box girders of the elevated MRTS.

Every seven-km stretch of the MRTS needs one station. Land will have to be found and acquired by the State near Kaimanam and Pappanamcode junctions. Land to the extend of 30 cents each is needed at both the locations. The cost of the project will go up from the ₹ 4,219 crore by another ₹320. As per the current rates, one-km light corridor will cost the exchequer ₹ 160 crore.

The proposal to extend the flyover at Ulloor to Medical College junction has not gone well with the project authorities, as it is feared that it will lead to further congestion in the junction where five roads meet.

Considering the need for free movement of the emergency vehicles bringing in the sick and terminally ill to the MCH, SAT, SCTIMST and RCC through the NH corridor, the DMRC has already modified the design of the flyover at Ulloor and extended it to the Medical College side near the temple. The DMRC will also look into the feasibility of extending the flyover from NH 66 to Medical College as tasked by the government.

E. Sreedharan, the DMRC Principal Adviser, who is reaching the capital on July 27, is to take a call on extending the MRTS corridor from Karamana to Pappanamcode and on extending the Ulloor flyover. The initial feasibility report is also to reach the government by this month end, sources say.

Once the government gives the nod for extending the Ulloor flyover, it will be taken up along with the preparatory works entrusted to the DMRC. The government had already given the administrative sanction for flyovers at Sreekaryam, Ulloor, Pattom and Thampanoor costing ₹ 272.84 crore.

THE HINDU