Kerala Chief Minister Oommen Chandy yesterday flagged off the test-run of the Rs51.8bn Kochi Metro and set November 1 as the deadline for its commercial operations.
The Kochi Metro Rail Limited (KMRL) which will operate the service said the test run on a 975m track in its Muttom Yard was perfect.
This is India’s seventh metro and the first in a Tier II city, and was completed in a record time.
The state has also started preliminary works on two more metros - in the state capital Thiruvananthapuram and the northern city of Kozhikode.
Chandy said the project could enter record books by becoming the fastest completed metro rail project in India, and it would be another feather in the cap of “Metro Man” E Sreedharan, the chief adviser of the project and a member of the Kerala Planning Board.
“On this occasion, I announce that this project will be dedicated to the people of Kerala on November 1, the Kerala formation day. We will complete it in 137 days from now,” Chandy said.
He offered rewards to the employees of Delhi Metro Rail Corp (DMRC), the consultants for project execution, and the KMRC.
“If there’s a will, there’s no limit to development and progress of Kerala. We should take a pledge to realise a hundred projects like this,” he said.
Sreedharan returned the compliments saying it was possible because of the unflinching support of the chief minister.
It took four years for the Delhi Metro test run whereas the Kochi Metro did it in two-and-half years.
It will reach Palarivattom from Aluva by July and to downtown Maharajah’s College by September. The rail will be extended to Tripunithura, Kakkanad, Cochin Airport and Fort Kochi in phases.
“This has happened in this short time, and it is certainly a commendable achievement,” said Sreedharan.
Chandy boarded the three-coach train set and entered the driver’s cabin before the flag-off with a six-year-old girl whom the KMRL described as a representative of the new generation.
Chandy proposed the project in 2005, and he put it firmly on track when he came back to power in 2011 after a five-year hiatus.
“We hope to take the train out of the yard early next month and start integrated trial on the overhead track,” KMRL managing director Elias John said.
“We’ll restore all the city roads along the rail to its original shape, or even better, before the monsoon (early June).”
The Kochi Metro construction started on June 7, 2013, and the government had promised to start operations on the Aluva-Pettah stretch (Phase 1) in 1,095 days with 137 days still to go.
The metro boasts of unique technological features like the communication-based transport system. It ensures hassle-free entry and exit and Wi-Fi on the go.
It has already undertaken pedestrian walkways, reconstruction of dismantled roads, setting up signboards and “bringing back the old glory of M G Road” to ensure seamless public transportation.
The joint venture owned equally by the state and the federal governments is also putting in place a unified public transport system integrated with bus, boat and train services with a single ticketing system to decongest the city.
French transport major Alstom will supply 24 more train sets, each containing three coaches with a capacity of 900 passengers, by April next year. The 25 trainsets will circulate on a 25km high elevated network with 22 stations up to Petta in the first phase.