The argument of the traders that that metro sounds the death knell for their businesses defies logic. Yes, during the construction phase it would cause hardship to traders and more than half of M.G road would be non-usable.  But, this is a very short term view of things, especially for a public utility which is to re-define the city. In our opinion a re-alignment of the line passing through m.g road would take the meat out of the project and pretty much defeats the whole purpose. As such business is getting out of the CBD and moving to places like the bye-pass. Looking forward this one utility would be the only thing that would retain M.G road as the hub of business. Is that too difficult to figure out? World-wide if you look at the trends, it is typically around utilities like the metro that growth happens.

The government should stick to its guns and under no consideration allow a re-alignment. Kochi metro rail.