Kerala Govt. hands over land to CPT for highway to Vallarpadam

Kochi, Nov 15 (UNI) The Kerala Government today handed over 3.48 acres of land to the Cochin Port Trust (CPT) for the construction of the 17.2 km long national highway for the country's first International Container Transshipment Terminal to come up at Vallarpadam near here.

Ernakulam District Collector A P M Mohammad Hanish handed over the documents of the area, acquired from the Sri Chithra Mills and 11 individuals, to CPT Chairman N Ramachandran at a function at Kalmassery, the starting point of the four-lane highway to Vallarpadam.

Mr Hanish said construction work for the highway will start in the first week of December. The entire 100 acres of land needed for the highway would be acquired by December-end, he added.

The union environment and forests ministry has already given environmental clearance for the highway and the entire project is scheduled to be completed within 30 months.

The CPT had made an advance payment of Rs 25 crore to facilitate completion of land acquisition and early shifting of utilities from the proposed road alignment.

Earlier, Mr Hanish told reporters that the survey work for land acquisition for the railway connectivity to Vallarpadam will be completed by tomorrow. Stating that there would be no change in the proposed rail alignment through Vaduthala area, Mr Hanish said the affected families were being offered a handsome compensation package, including a job for one member of each affected family.

He said the state government would shortly issue the land acquisition notification for the railway connectivity, incorporating the 'urgency' clause.

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