No land for the big infrastructure push

KOCHI: Going by the delays in acquiring land in the city, the future of infrastructure projects is grim. The revenue department is yet to acquire 346.37 hectares of land needed for four major projects – Kochi Metro, first phase of Cochin city road improvement project (CCRIP), second phase of seaport-airport road and the Sabari rail project. Revenue officials say the delay in fixing the price of land to be acquired is hampering the progress.
The much-vaunted Kochi Metro project will find it tough if land is not acquired soon. The authorities have completed the process to get land along the North railway over bridge and have finalized the land value on MG Road, Banerjee Road and South railway station road between Rs 38 lakh and Rs 40 lakh. Though the land value has been finalised, the authorities are yet to resolve the disputes and objections put forward by the land owners in these area. The revenue department has formed two separate units to acquire about 28.50 hectares of land between Aluva and Petta.
Meanwhile, the project to relay 19 roads in the city under the first phase of CCRIP is awaiting administrative nod from the state government. Officials of the land acquisition section of the revenue department say the land can be acquired for Kerala Road Fund Board (KRFB), the implementing agency, only after the government sanction. The KRFB wants 7.52 hectares of land for the project and had notified the revenue officials about this three months ago. “Unless the department hands over the land to us, we will not be able to take up the project,” said a senior KRFB official. The acquisition of 169.82 hectares of land for the second phase of seaport-airport road from Kalamassery to Nedumbassery is also pending. Though the project was launched in 2000 it was delayed due to fund paucity.
The state government has asked the revenue officials to go ahead with the land acquisition process for the project whose implementing agency is the Roads and Bridges Corporation Kerala (RBDCK). The muchneeded land is spread across five villages of Thrikkakara north , Chengamanad , Chowara, Aluva east and Aluva west.
The Sabari rail project is in limbo for no fault of the state government. Though the authorities completed the survey procedures to acquire 77.09 hectares of the total 140.53 hectares of land in the district for the rail link between Angamaly and Azhutha, the railways has not released the funds (Rs 189.57 crore). Meanwhile, the state government, unhappy over the railways' suggestion of 50:50 cost-sharing of project, has partially suspended the notification for the land acquisition process.
Early last month, the railway board had sent a letter to the district administration to close down the special tahsildar office at Muvattupuzha. Though the collector had convened a meeting of railway officials to retain the office, the officials responded negatively.
On Monday, district collector P I Sheik Pareeth had urged the land rev- enue officials to speed up the land acquisition process for various projects in the district.