Chief Minister Oommen Chandy chose to turn the inauguration of his mass contact programme, Karuthal, at the Collectorate parade ground here on Thursday into a platform for announcing seven significant projects for the city.
A centralised sewage-treatment plant for Kochi and cancer centre at Kalamassery found mention in Mr. Chandy’s announcements. He said that Rs.5 crore had been allocated for drawing up a detailed project report for the treatment plant.
Tenders would be floated to find a partner for setting up a regional cancer centre at Kalamassery in the annuity model. Mr. Chandy said that Kochi would be the first city to get the city gas project whereby piped cooking gas would reach households.
“A meeting of people’s representatives and other stakeholders will be convened shortly to remove the hurdles in acquiring land for the project,” he said.
Floating markets
Canals in the district would be cleaned to launch floating markets. Such floating commercial centres would come up at selected spots alongside the backwaters, including at Marine Drive. A logistics park would be set up to ease the traffic pressure on Container Terminal Road, Mr. Chandy said.
Rural BPOs
He also coined the concept of rural BPOs to take the benefit of IT advancement to youngsters in rural areas. Joint efforts by the Revenue and Forest Departments would be made to resolve issues related to title deeds in the district. Stating that the issue had already been taken up with the Ministers concerned, Mr. Chandy promised time-bound solution to land-related issues.
Minister for Excise K. Babu presided.
Public Works Minister V.K. Ebrahim Kunju, Civil Supplies Minister Anoop Jacob, and District Collector M.G. Rajamanikyam offered felicitations.
MLAs Benny Behanan, Dominic Presentation, V.D. Satheeshan, T.U. Kuruvilla, Anwar Sadat, V.P. Sajeendran, Hibi Eden, Joseph Vazhakkan, and Ludy Lewis; district panchayat president Eldhose Kunnappillil; Thrikkakara municipal chairman P.I. Mohammadali; Mayor Tony Chammany; municipal chairmen Jamal Manakkadan (Kalamassery), T.K. Devarajan, and R. Venugopal (Tripunithura); GCDA chairman N. Venugopal; Inspector General of Police M.R. Ajith Kumar; City Police Commissioner K.G. James; Fort Kochi sub-collector S. Suhas; Rural SP Yatheesh Chandra; and additional district magistrate B. Ramachandran were present.