KOCHI: After the long cold war between the district administration and the Kochi Metro Rail Limited which slowed down land acquisition, the new district Collector has now intervened to speed up land acquisition for the Metro. As the acquisition for Phase I, except from Petta to Tripunithura has been completed, the KMRL now has to focus on Phase II – the Kakkanad extension. Collector Muhammad Y Safirulla held discussions with KMRL managing director Elias George and other top officials the other day and extended all support.
“He has offered steps to speed up the pace of land acquisition for the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium – Infopark line for which nearly 8.65 acres of land has to be acquired,” said a top KMRL official. The Metro agency also has to takeover another 4 acres of land for preparatory works like road widening. “After a lull, the land acquisition process for the Metro project is expected to get a boost with the intervention of the new Collector,” sources added.
Meanwhile, Mr. Safirulla told DC that all pending issues with regard to acquisition would be sorted out immediately. “After the meeting with KMRL, we have conducted another review meeting and based on the decision taken, impediments and delays if any in acquisition will be resolved at the earliest,” he said. In the last few months during the tenure of former district collector M.G Rajamanickam, land acquisition for the Metro has been going at a slow pace following disputes over acquiring plots of certain landlords.
The meeting of the District Level Purchase Committee for Metro acquisition has not been convened in the last three months. Since plots required for the Kakkanad line are along the narrow and heavily encroached Palarivattom – Kakkanad Road, strict measures by the district administration are crucial to complete the process in a time-bound manner. Most of the plots to be acquired are commercial in nature or owned by the government. Effective intervention of the Collector is needed also in handing over the government land to KMRL on time.
