Urbanisation is the
urge of the modern character structure of civilization. The stringent inflow of
people to urban areas in the hope of yearning hallucinating pleasures is a real
problem of town planning. Alternating resources and paraphernalia are to be
introduced to accommodate the life flow. New transit modes became inevitable to
the mass move of people to save time, money and to enthuse development. Metro
rail system thus became the civilization pageant of modern living.
Metros are a source of saving time, cash and
energy. Traffic suffocation can be considerably reduced by this system. Kochi,
the metropolitan city of Kerala, was craving for modern traffic measures as she
was, and is, experiencing traffic stigmatisation above par. Metro rail was the
befitting solution to this problem as it doesn’t need any extra land since it
runs on air above pillars. The dream metro system was materialised on 17th
June 2017 when it was dedicated to the Kochinites by our Honourable Prime
Minister of India Narendra Modi.
As we are
concerned, previously we have travelled in the metros during our visits to
abroad. We still savour the rich memories of metro travels in Perth and
Brisbane of Australia, New York, California and Chicago of USA, Singapore,
Kuala Lumpur, Dubai and our cities Delhi, Kolkata and Mumbai. But Kochi metro
is something beyond all these experiences. This is our personal pride and
prestige. We are the elite in the global front of modern travel system, the
class of excellence of the Keralites in general.
The metro to the
public was opened from 6am on 19th June 2017 onwards. With a festive
mood and grooming enthusiasm we speeded to the Aluva station at 5.30am itself
as the station is the next western site of our premise. We were surprised to
see the hilarious crowd. We were given a memento at the entrance gate as the
‘first day traveller of KMRL’, a gift of Malayala Manorama sponsored. Enjoyed
the escalator ride and reached the ticket counter. With excitement we did fit
in the long queue. After the security procedures on the platform the crowd were
eagerly waiting to witness the first metro of Kochi. Security guards were
struggling to control the crowd to get back from the safety line assigned. The
beautiful ocean blue painted metro arrived and stood in front of us like a
beautiful idol. The doors were opened with the ethnic music, ‘elathalam’. The crowd got in. They were so keen looking
outside and getting ready to see the aerial view from the sky ride and the
vista. The feel inside was so cool with pleasing ocean blue and lemon green
coloured seats along with the same coloured firm handles to hold while
standing. It took only 19 minutes to reach Edapally from Aluva. Journey itself was really amazing. The drum
beating music while opening the doors gave us the cultural taste of Kerala. The
story of our spices and grains are displayed on the walls through pictures at
Edapally station. We got outside, took a picture with ‘Lulu Mall’ as the background.
Reached the ticket counter, purchased return tickets to Aluva and through the
lift back to the platform to catch the metro. Within seconds, there came the
metro queen. As we entered we were surprised to see Shri Elias George IAS, MD,
KMRL at the door. He was so nice to chat with us and everyone being one among
us in the journey. We were back at Aluva by 7 am.
 |
| Memento |
It was a
dream came true of our own metro by the great Metro Man,
Sri
Sreedharan. This is really our pride and prestige. Let us keep our metro clean
and safe to add a golden feather in the crown of our ‘God’s own Country’.
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