Keralam government issues technical sanction for first phase of KSRTC bus terminal at Karikkamury in Kochi

The Keralam government has issued technical sanction to the Public Works department (PWD) to execute the first phase of the proposed KSRTC bus terminal at Karikkamury, near the existing bus stand.

“With the ₹13-crore project receiving technical sanction, the PWD is expected to invite tenders for its construction in early September,” said an official associated with the project.

The first phase of the bus terminal complex will be single-storey and have dedicated bus bays, while provision will be readied for its vertical expansion at a later stage. Once the work is awarded, the initial phase of the project is expected to be readied in approximately a year, said a senior KSRTC official.

The demand to build a new terminal dates back to over two decades since the existing bus terminal premises is vulnerable to waterlogging. The threat persists during heavy rain, although the ground was raised and the terminal complex was renovated earlier this year.

In a change from the original proposal for an integrated terminal at the KSRTC-owned land at Karikkamury, private buses will not be permitted into the proposed terminal (that would be built in 2.90 acres), it is learnt.

Welcoming the granting of technical sanction for the project, Hibi Eden, MP, hoped that the first phase would be commissioned fast enough, and in a professional manner. “Special care ought to be given to prevent waterlogging and to ensure structural stability, considering that a garage built on the premises under a ₹2-crore MLA fund [when Mr. Eden was Ernakulam MLA] developed cracks even before its inauguration and had to be demolished,” he said.

In addition, care must be taken to make optimal use of land on the existing bus terminal premises, if need be, by replacing the existing old structure with a new one, Mr. Eden added.

Sources attributed the manifold delays in kick-starting work on the project to an initial plan to swap a portion of the KSRTC’s land at Karikkamury with land of equivalent value at the Vyttila Mobility Hub. The KSRTC opposed the project, saying that a huge investment would be needed to build a terminal on the slushy land at the hub. There were also differences of opinion since an integrated terminal was mulled at Karikkamury, where both KSRTC and private buses would share space. Moreover, a proposal to source ₹12 crore from Cochin Smart Mission Limited (CSML) too did not yield the desired results.