The Appellate Committee constituted to study the three alignments for finalizing the rail link from Kochi to the Vallarpadam International Container Transshipment Terminal site has identified the route through Vaduthala in the suburban area of the city as the most feasible one.

It said the alignment passing through Vaduthala is the most feasible considering the limited number of eviction of families in the locality against larger section in the case of other alignments proposed by the committee.

The cost involved for the rail link through Vaduthala will be to the tune of Rs.246 crore. The proposed rail link has been included in the fast-track projects of the Kerala government.

The rail route through Vaduthala will connect Edapally with Vallarpadam through Mulavukad Island. The length of the route is 8.86 km, of which 850 m will be elevated track. There will be four major bridges and two minor ones in the stretch. The area to be acquired is 18.38 ha.

The land acquisition cost alone comes to the tune of Rs.54.39 crore and the civil construction work Rs.182.15 crore.

Among the two other alignments proposed, one is through the Divine Nagar-Vaduthala route. The cost would be around Rs.262 crore and 163 families would have to be displaced.

In the case of the alignment through the Kalamassery-Cheranaloor-Mulavukad route, the cost would be Rs.314 crore with 175 families affected.

(Note: The rail connectivity is amongst the infrastructure segments that the Kerala government would develop to support the upcoming Vallarpadam International Container Terminal.)

Also See:

Kochi Port Trust hands over container terminal to DPI (02-Apr-05)