Revised South beach tourism project to take off by year-end

KOZHIKODE: After initial hiccups, the South Beach Tourism project would take off by year end. The revised project, excluding the land of the port department from the beautification work, has already been prepared and the department of harbour engineering is planning to tender the work.
Though the inauguration of the first phase work of the tourism project was held in March 2014, the work failed to take off as the department of ports raised objection regarding the use of their land for beautification work.The tourism department in association with the harbour engineering department revised the project later excluding the port land as the port department objected the use of their land citing that it would affect their future development.
"We have already received administrative sanction for the work. Only technical sanction is pending and we are expecting to finish of all paper works before December," said BTV Krishnan, executive engineer of harbour engineering department. The department of tourism has already allocated Rs 1.5 crore of the total project cost of Rs 3.85 crore to us for carrying out the work, he said.
The harbour engineering department is now waiting to get the Coastal Regulation Zone status map from the National Centre for Earth Science Studies for getting technical sanction. Meanwhile, with the directive of minister for social justice M K Muneer, who is the local MLA, the harbour engineering department is progressing with tender work as the project include only permissible activities on the coastal area. The work of a 350-metre stretch starting from the already beautified portion will be completed in the first phase.
At present, the south beach premise is notorious for antisocial activities and visitors do not have any option to explore the region, said Krishnan. With the completion of this project the Beach goers will get an opportunity to extend their horizon towards south beach, he added. "In the initial phase, we will construct a 6-metre walkway along the 350 metre stretch and light poles," said an official. Planter boxes to grow and maintain flowering plants will also be part of the project, he said.
On the completion of the work, South Beach is expected to attract visitors, who presently throng the Kozhikode main beach, opposite corporation office. This will help reduce crowding at the main beach, said a tourism department official.
The work is expected to commence soon after clearing CRZ norms, said P G Rajeev, secretary of district tourism promotion council. DTPC has been appointed the implementing agency of the project while the construction work will be carried out by the harbour engineering department.