The Hindu 01.07.2011
Plan to build water transport network for city gets going
KITCO Limited, a public sector technical consultancy organisation, will prepare a detailed project report for developing the water transport network for Kochi. The decision was taken when the Corporation Council met here on Thursday to approve the water transport proposal prepared by the Cities Development Initiative for Asia (CDIA) as part of its pre-feasibility report for urban transport sector of Kochi.
Other proposals
CDIA in its report had covered proposals for water transport, enhancement of bus services, pedestrian precincts, pedestrian and rail overbridges.
The corporation council decided to take up the proposals for other sectors later.
Yielding to the Opposition demand, Kochi Mayor Tony Chammany said the details of the CDIA report will be given to councillors and detailed discussion will be held.
The suggestions and proposals of the councillors will be passed on to KITCO for inclusion of the detailed project report. The council also decided to forward to KTICO the budget proposal to form a company for managing the water transport network.
Detailed report
Corporation councillors including K. J. Jacob, the CPI(M) leader in the council, N. Anilkumar and K. V. Manoj protested against the failure of the corporation in presenting the detailed report in the council.
Earlier, representatives of the CDIA made a brief presentation on the four sectors including water transport for Kochi. It was estimated that the water transport sector would require Rs.225 crore for the procurement of boats, improvement of boat jetties and related works.
Bus service
The enhancement of bus service in around 35-km-long city routes would cost Rs.100 crore, the pedestrian precincts Rs.142 crore and pedestrian and rail overbridges another Rs.107 crore. The agency estimated that it would require Rs.644 crore for all the projects together.
Even while supporting the proposal for improving the water transport sector, the LDF councillors said that the council should be apprised of the report presented by the agency.
The presentation that was made in the council lacked essential details including the passenger traffic data and the financial component.
The council should go ahead with the project only after discussing the report in detail, they said.
N. Venugopal, the Congress councillor, also demanded details of the report.
Budget proposal
The Mayor explained to the council that the proposal regarding the water transport was included in the budget that was passed by the corporation council earlier.
The explanations given by Ajith B. Patil, the secretary of the corporation, also failed to satisfy the opposition members.
Those who took part in the discussion included T. J. Vinod and T. K. Ashraf, chairmen of the Standing Committees of the corporation, and councillors Sojan Antony, K. R. Premakumar, Shyamala S. Prabhu and N. A. Shafeek.
CDIA report says Rs.225 crore would be needed for building water transport system
Opposition councillors demand discussion before going ahead with the project
