Kochi Metro wins many hearts

The people of Kerala were elated when Kochi Metro started its services on Sunday. 400 people were selected as the first passengers of the new Kochi Metro which included senior citizens from an old age home as well as the differently abled. The Kochi Metro has been constructed by the Delhi Metro Rail Limited, with E Sreedharan, India's "Metro Man", as its special advisor. At the inauguration ceremony headed by the PM, Sreedharan was greeted to a thunderous applause for his contribution to the country. It is the fastest metro to be completed and its first phase is operational. Kochi metro also includes the technology for driverless trains and plans to implement this in the near future. The project is winning hearts as it reaches out to various sections of the population with strong emotive issues. The project received praise as it employed workers from Kudumbashree (Women empowerment and poverty eradication program) as well as members from the transgender community. Kochi metro is also involved in sustainable initiatives with the introduction of non motorized transport corridors in the city, installation of solar panels for power and vertical garden on every fourth metro pillar. Elias George, the Managing Director of KMRL ( Kochi Metro Rail Ltd.)  said that the best aspect of the Kochi Metro is that even though most of the government schemes were unidirectional, they were happy that they could combine the metro project with several poverty-alleviation projects. A 13.4 km section of the line from Aluva to Palarivattom was opened to the public. A second 5 km section from Palarivattom up to Maharaja's College will be made operational by August 2017.