KOCHI: The Greater Cochin Development Authority’s (GCDA) ambitious international convention centre project proposed at Jawaharlal Nehru stadium has hit a roadblock as the state government has been sitting on the proposal for long and has not given clearance.
The GCDA announced the project as part of its Vision 2030 programme in early 2013 and the detailed project report prepared by KITCO, the technical consultancy organisation, was submitted for the state government’s approval in October last year. After more than a year, the development authority is yet to get the clearance to take up the project.
Last Wednesday, the government authorities sent a letter to GCDA asking it to submit a new project proposal by rejecting the earlier plan.
When contacted, GCDA chairman N. Venugopal told DC that there were deliberate attempts to sabotage the project and to help the controversial convention centre project proposed by a big business conglomerate at Bolgatty.
“We find no reason to reject the proposal prepared by experts of KITCO in consultation with retired chief engineers of reputed organisations.
The government has not pointed out any specific reason for rejecting the plan and the only point noted was to provide parking facility for 500 more cars. Parking space for 600 cars has already been mentioned in the plan,” he said.
The Authority has been asked to submit the new proposal through agencies including the City Corporation and Regional Town Planner. N. Venugopal added that the project was likely to be scrapped to help the mega convention centre to come up at Bolgatty.
The GCDA’s proposal was to construct the state of the art centre at an estimated cost of Rs 96-cr. The centre will have food courts, guest rooms and facilities to host four major exhibitions at a time.
