Kochi metro phase-III could extend up to Ayyampuzha, say officials

Kochi Metro Rail Limited is set to embark on a feasibility study for the extension that is located approximately 14 km beyond the international airport.

The Kochi metro’s proposed phase-III extension could, in a few years down the lane, extend beyond Cochin International Airport and Angamaly up to Ayyampuzha, the site of the proposed Global City, if everything falls in place as expected, official sources say.

Aimed at readying the groundwork for this, Kochi Metro Rail Limited (KMRL) is set to embark on a feasibility study for the extension that is located approximately 14 km beyond the international airport. The Ayyampuzha extension finds mention in the request for proposal (RFP) that has been invited to conduct a feasibility study on the metro’s phase-III extension, it is learnt.

Focus on TOD

Apart from establishing metro connectivity with the proposed Global City that is one of the components of the Kochi-Bengaluru industrial corridor, the extension further beyond the airport would also help bring about Transit Oriented Development (TOD) on the stretch. This would in turn help, among others, people employed in Kochi to settle in areas in the suburbs, near the airport-Ayyampuzha corridor, paying considerably less for land while at the same time decongesting the city. “The loan and other requisites of the extension could be arranged during the period when the feasibility study, project report, and allied studies are carried out,” the sources say.

Funds

On its part, KMRL will have to ensure the availability of funds — especially loans — considering that there is an inordinate delay in getting the loan that AIIB had agreed to extend for the metro’s 11.20-km Kakkanad extension, whose works are currently under way, sources said.

Land acquisition is reportedly on for the Global City project where IT, electronic, financial and tourism firms are expected to invest. An approximately three-km-long underground metro corridor and an underground station attached to the airport have been envisaged, as part of the metro’s phase-III Aluva-international airport-Angamaly extension.