The mud-filled parking ground at Karakkamury near the main KSRTC bus depot is not only an ordeal, but a nightmare for drivers, as once it rains, incidents of buses getting stuck in the slush and employees slipping and falling will become a regular, but unfo-rtunate feature of KSRTC.
There seems to be no end in sight to this problem. The reason – the agencies involved, the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC), Roads and Bridges Develo-pment Corporation of Kera-la and the Kerala State Road Transport Corporati-on (KSRTC) are shifting the onus of providing a clean and safe parking lot, on one another.
The land, which is more than an acre, was provided to the Corporation by the Kochi Metro Project Ltd as compensation for the land acquired to build the Salim Raja flyover.
Though the DMRC, the implementing agency, gave away the land, it is yet to resurface the ground. “We’ve taken up the issue with the DMRC. We’re forwarding another letter req-uesting the agency to resurface the land at the earliest,“ a top KSRTC official said.
However, DMRC maintains it has entrusted the work to RBDCK, but the latter denies it. “We have fil-led up the major digs in the land, now the resurface and tarring works are to be carried out by the RBDCK,” DM-RC PRO P.Narayanan said.
“Earlier, we had done some small works for me-tro on the KSRTC land and got the money. But we have not taken up any further assignments,” RBDCK MD Mohammed Hanish said. The cash-strapped KSRTC is not willing to do the work saying it was part of the agreement with DMRC.
“The spectacle of drivers slipping and falling has been a regular one. The latest to happen was on Monday morning when the driver of ‘Vattapara-Kovil-kadavu’ bus got injured,” P.J. Antony, a shunting driver, said.