The plan is to develop green lungs along the 524 medians beneath the Edappally-Thripunithura Pettah metro corridor.
| Photo Credit: FILE PHOTO

Faced with stiff opposition from socio-environmental and political activists to the proposal of Kochi Metro Rail Limited (KMRL) to cover medians beneath the Edappally-Thripunithura Pettah metro corridor with concrete paver blocks, the metro agency has sent a letter to Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd. (BPCL), seeking the oil major’s help to develop green lungs along the 524 medians on the stretch.

KMRL has also turned to the Ernakulam District Agri-Horticulture Society, seeking its expertise to plant the apt variety of plants atop the medians, which had over the past eight years become a dumping ground for waste and construction debris, it is learnt.

In addition, the overgrowth of weeds had turned them into eyesores located at the centre of arterial roads. Making matters worse, the metro agency failed to live up to its assurance of readying a vertical garden every few metro pillars, sources said.

KMRL sources said the agency was negotiating with BPCL on the oil major taking over the upkeep of the medians by planting saplings. “On its part, the horticulture society has offered its help for the initiative, after Ernakulam MLA T.J. Vinod protested against the move to cover the medians with paver blocks,” they added.

The metro agency had floated a tender earlier this year for the paver-block initiative, citing slack cooperation from a majority of shops and other commercial establishments that had initially agreed to sponsor the greening of the medians. “Although a firm responded to the tender, we are awaiting the BPCL’s reply to our letter on the greening project,” the sources added.

In the meantime, BPCL sources said that, having received KMRL’s recent letter, the agency was in the initial stage of deliberations with the metro agency on the initiative. The management would have to look at different aspects of the project, they added.

In his letter to KMRL, Mr. Vinod had termed the metro agency’s paver-block proposal as a blatant violation of its assurance to plant saplings atop the medians. The paver block project would only benefit mega advertisement agencies. Even before the metro’s commissioning in 2017, KMRL had agreed in its contract with the Centre and the French lending agency to carry out a greening drive on the medians, and there is no justification for abandoning it.

He added that the metro agency had overlooked the wide availability of an array of indigenous plants that needed little maintenance and watering, which the horticulture society had recommended. They would also lessen the metro’s carbon footprint and the toll taken due to tens of hundreds of trees being cut down for the metro.