Steps to speed up land acquisition for electronics park

Steps are afoot to speed up the acquisition of land required for the proposed electronics park at Amballur after a period of lull.

Sources in the Industries Department said that the technical constraints that had held up land acquisition, finalised in 2016, had been cleared. At this pace, land acquisition formalities may be concluded in around six months.

Though ₹90 crore had been allotted for the first phase of land acquisition around two years ago, the process was held up due to certain technicalities. Legal opinion on some proposals for land acquisition, including payment of an advance of 50% of the value to landowners, too had to be sought, sources said.

The district administration had reached an agreement with landowners about a year ago on the price of parcels of land being acquired for the project. The agreement was reached at a meeting attended by representatives of landowners and officials of the district administration, District Level Purchasing Committee, and Kerala State Industrial Development Corporation. However, technical details had delayed the acquisition process.

Amballur panchayat president Jalaja Mohan said there was a fresh move on the electronics park project, and it was to pay 50% advance to landowners.

Though the park was initially proposed on 350 acres, financial constraints forced limiting it to a little more than 100 acres.

The 2018-19 Budget had underlined the scope for developing electronics hardware sector in the State and had termed it “one of the sectors in which Kerala can attain prominence.” The Budget had also referred to the hardware park at Amballur. The 2017-18 Budget had set aside a total of ₹1,552 crore for major projects including the Kochi metro, Kannur airport, Kollam-Alappuzha bypass, and the Kochi electronics hardware park.