Waiting for the KOMET

• 26 May 2014
• Features

Come 2016 and Kochi is going to be the first tier II city in India to have a metro. With a capacity to accommodate 975 passengers at a time, the Kochi Metro or KOMET is already changing the cityscape.
Aju’s chai stall has been in MG Road for the past 6 years.Tucked between branded outlets, the shop has been seeing the transformation of the commercial centre of Kochi since the metro work began in September 2013. “Business is not good” says Aju.“Nobody can stop and come to my shop since they made the road single lane. I’m not complaining because this struggle is for a good cause. If the next generation asks us what we did for them, we have something to show”. In between the metal shutters, dust, heat and traffic jams in Kochi, are people looking at the glass half full.
Present scenarioLet us face it. It is not a pretty picture. The normally vibrant Kochi centre has one third the crowd it used to have.There are over two hundred shops in MG Road alone. The overall business has reduced to forty to fifty percent according to the Kerala Merchants Union. Twenty five percent of the shops have shut down. Offices have been relocating to the highway. But most remain optimistic, they are certain that whatever loss they bear now will be recovered once the metro starts running.
Learning from othersTake the Delhi Metro for instance says K Venkatesh Pai of the Kerala Merchants Union, “ When the construction was going on there were concerns about the Connaught place and Chandni Chowk losing business, but now the areas sees a sixty percentage increase in footfall. Business has never been better. Kochi just has to hold on for another two years and its patience will be paid off indouble. The Kerala Merchants Union is pushing forward a metro rehabilitation package at the moment which would bring much needed relief to the small time business owners.
The other side of the coinFor the major textile houses the metro work has not affected their business since they have ample parking, alternate entry points and a dedicated customer base. Theatres too have not registered a decrease as their sole dependency is on the popularity of the films. But others are barely able to keep up. They all await the pride of Kochi to start functioning and transform their businesses. Auto drivers who are bearing the brunt of the metro work say that their business would only increase once the metro starts. Though the metro work has brought about a lot of changes, Kochiites are focused on the light at the end of the tunnel.