Thampanoor to East Fort foot-overbridge planned

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Transport Minister V S Sivakumar has said that the State Government was planning to construct a foot overbridge (FOB) from Thampanoor bus station to East Fort.  He told reporters here on Friday that the proposed foot overbridge would connect the bus station with the railway station and then proceed to East Fort. The proposal  would be discussed with the Railway Ministry, he said.Sivakumar said that the renovation of the bus terminal at Thampanoor would be completed by next July. The construction work of the new terminal which was stopped following an accident would be resumed soon.  The Minister also announced a plan to introduce point-to-point bus services.The services would be introduced on a pilot basis from Thiruvananthapuram to Kollam and from Thiruvananthapuram to Kottarakkara. He said that the bus services were expected to begin once the construction of the Enchakkal bus terminal was completed.Sivakumar said that there was a plan to extend the low-floor bus services under the JNNURM scheme to the adjacent districts of Thiruvananthapuram and Ernakulam districts also. This will be done after getting the clearance from the Central Government.He said that the proposal for starting a new women’s engineering college at Parassala under the KSRTC could not be implemented due to the case in the High Court. The Court had banned the issuance of NOCs to new engineering colleges. Moreover, the bylaw of the Sree Chitra Engineering College Society has to be amended for starting a new engineering college.The construction of the men’s hostel and the ladies’ hostel for the new engineering college was under consideration. The college was in the process of identifying buildings for temporarily housing the hostels till the buildings are completed, he said.