For several years, SmartCity, billed as the would-be IT hub of Kerala, was the development icon of Kochi. Thousands of people wove their economic dreams and career plans around it. But, years of missed deadlines, unfulfilled promises and controversies have knocked Kochi SmartCity off the development iconography.
Now, the Metro has emerged as the new icon of Kochi, which is itching to become a metropolitan city. The 25-km, Rs 5200-crore mass transit project has captured the development imagination of the residents as well as the business community
On Friday, eight years after the project was conceived, Chief Minister Oommen Chandy kicked off the civil works of the project, promising that Delhi Metro Rail Corporation, the executing agency, would call it a day after 1095 days of non-stop work. Chandy promised that his government would see if the metro rail link could be extended to Trippunithura, Angamaly and Kakkanad, and even beyond. The master engineering administrator behind the project, E. Sreedharan, said it would be just three years before metro train rolled on. Even as the Chief Minister ceremonially launched the project, as if to underscore the promise of time-bound completion of the project, piling work for the rail line’s pillars started at Edappally.
People of this city of narrow roads, clogged bylanes and an explosion of vehicles pin their hopes on the metro. Businesspeople expect the project would drive economic development and urban expansion in a much wider scale than SmartCity would ever do, even if it comes true. However, there many hurdles lying scattered on the Metro tracks.
TIME OVERRUNS
Kerala is notorious for cost and time overruns. The delay is due to a litany of reasons, mainly a poor work culture that has scant respect for deadlines. In spite of DMRC’s efficiency and E. Sreedharan’s stickiness for time, Kochi Metro is not beyond these.
Labour shortage is a major hurdle, but the influx of migrant labour would take care of that. However, the increasingly criminalised trade unions in the city, which are often beyond the control of their political leadership, cannot be expected to let the Metro work go on unhindered. ‘Nokku coolie,’ another name for goonda collection,’ could also lead to frequent work stoppages. Even an artist, who scheduled to display his work at the Kochi-Muziris Biennale, had been forced to cough up a hefty sum for allowing him to get his art materials off the truck.
Once finished, the Metro will face the problem of road connectivity. For any major metro to succeed, the last-mile connectivity is very crucial. If the government fails to link the metro line with a network of fine roads, commuters would stay of the metro. Again, as of now, the Metro’s scope is limited—from Aluva to Peta. Without extending it to Trippunithura, Nedumbassery, Kakkanad and Fort Kochi the impact on traffic congestion in the city will be minimal.
Apart from SmartCity, there have been other development icons that have disappointed the Kochi people. The Vallarpadom International Transhipment Terminal, which had come with a lot of hype too, has not been able to live up to its tall promise. The LNG terminal at Puthuvype, which was expected to unleash an economic boom, has not materialised so far.
Will Sreedharan’s 24x7x1095 work formula change all that?