Kochi (India) initiates work on
“Feasibility of North - South Mobility Corridor” under the MYC Program
(Mayor and Councilors along with Indian Railway officials on site visit, image courtesy: Times of India)
Hon’ble Mayor Ms. Soumini Jain, together with the Councilors of the KMC and railway representatives visited the project site, together with the AFD and MYC PIU team.
Kochi, one of the most important cities in South India is home to ~650,000 (Census of India, 2011) people and is also known as the commercial capital of Kerala. Its influence area spreads much wider than the municipal corporation area of ~95 sq km. The urban mobility demand in the city is exploding and as per the latest estimates, the metropolitan region accounts for almost two million passenger trips per day (CMP, 2017).
The city has two railway stations, namely Ernakulum North and Ernakulum South, with an estimated daily passenger volume of 65,000 passengers. However, the two stations have very poor connectivity even
though there are major activity centers along the corridor, including Ambedakar Stadium, Lissie Hospital, KSRTC Bus terminal & depot. The existing primary linkage between both railway stations is through MG Road and Chittoor Road (approx. 3.8 Kms). Currently, auto-rickshaws (Intermediate Public Transport) and walking are the dominant transport modes.
Despite its continuous efforts, the urban local body has not been able to provide easy connectivity between the two stations because of lack of a suitable design and clarity on the optimal movement patterns. In the recent years, there has been a renewed interest on the need to improve mobility along the corridor. The City plans to develop this corridor as a green corridor connecting major activity centers along it while also improving the aesthetics, cleanliness, and security, thereby raising land value along the corridor. The intent is also to facilitate multi-modal integration by improving the accessibility of KMRL metro stations with the identified activity centers.
With a view of overcoming and tackling the urban mobility challenges, Kochi has become the first MYC city in the country to execute a green mobility corridor connectivity between two railway stations. The specific objective of the project is to promote mobility focusing on pedestrians and non-motorized modes to create a more walkable, safe, environment friendly and humane city.
The project will be undertaken within the framework of NUTP 2006 and in coherence with various other sustainable and smart mobility projects being implemented in Kochi. The study duration is six months and the kick off meeting with the selected SUEZ consultants was held in December 2019.
In March 2020, implementation of the study recommendations got the nod from broader stakeholder base and was approved in the Kochi Municipal Corporation budget for the financial year 2020-21