KOCHI: Despite rain slowing down the construction activities being undertaken across the city, the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation ( DMRC ) remains hopeful that they would be able to complete Kochi Metro 's civil work from Maharaja's College to Thykoodam by year-end.The Metro authority said that the construction work was progressing as per schedule "though the work came to a standstill during heavy rain"."Last week, we had to halt work for a day. There was no waterlogging at our construction sites. As of now, we don't face any difficulties in carrying out the work," said DMRC spokesperson.DMRC maintained that they expected to start the system work in September."We plan to lay tracks where the work of viaduct is over. However, the system work between Maharaja's and Ernakulam south would begin only at a later stage," added the spokesperson.He also said that the Metro authority was in the process of working out a detailed plan for the time-bound execution of the remaining work.As per DMRC' schedule, track laying works are expected to take three months and installation of different systems will take another three months. Once these works are completed, the Kochi Metro line from Maharaja's College to Thykoodam will be ready for inspection by the Commissioner for Metro Rail Safety (CMRS) in June 2019.The work of the 95-m-long balanced cantilever structure, a crucial link in Kochi Metro viaduct, coming up near Ernakulam Junction railway station is also expected to be ready by September.The Kochi Metro Rail Ltd (KMRL) had expressed hope that the work till Pettah would be completed by September-October 2019.

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