Amid much hype and hoopla, Kerala on Saturday got its first metro train service with the inauguration of the Kochi Metro by PM Narendra Modi. Kochi became only the eighth city in India to have a metro service after Kolkata, Delhi-NCR, Bengaluru, Gurgaon, Mumbai, Jaipur and Chennai. The phase which was inaugurated on Saturday will operate from Aluva to Palarivattom. It will cover 13.26 km and has 11 stations.

At the inauguration ceremony, Modi enumerated several significant features of the Kochi metro:

• It is the first metro project to be commissioned with a modern signalling system called the “Communication Based Train Control Signalling system”.
• The coaches reflect the “Make in India” vision. They have been built by Alstom of France, at their factory near Chennai, and have Indian components of around seventy percent.
• The Kochi Metro integrates the city’s entire public transportation network into a single system. This system will have a common time-table, common ticketing and centralised ‘command and control’. It also focusses on improving last mile connectivity and non-motorised transportation system in the inner city.
• The smart card of Kochi Metro, Kochi-1 Card, is a multi-purpose pre-paid, contact-less RuPay card which can be used both for travelling in the metro and as a normal debit card.
• Kochi will be one of the few cities in India to have a modern open-loop Smart Card, which can be used with other modes of transport like buses, taxis and autos as well.
• The project is also an example of environment-friendly development. It plans to meet nearly twenty five percent of the entire energy requirements from renewable sources, particularly solar energy. The long-term plan is to become a zero-carbon emitting urban transit system. Every sixth pillar of the metro system will have a covered vertical garden, which will substantially use urban solid waste.
• All stations as well as the Operation Control Centre of Kochi Metro have achieved platinum rating which is the highest certification level given by the Indian Green Building Council.

The Kochi Metro is India’s first integrated multi-mode transport system and also holds the rare distinction of being the fastest completed metro project in the country. It has been completed in four years.

Among other firsts, it is also the first public transport system to reserve jobs for members of the third sex. The other revelation is that the Kochi Metro will be mostly manned by women, with over 1,000 women working in various departments such as house-keeping, customer relations, catering and a multitude of other jobs.

—India Legal Bureau