Kochi Metro Rail Limited (KMRL) will not negotiate further with Seematti Textiles for acquiring 32 cents of land owned by the firm on the north-end of MG Road, the metro agency’s managing director Elias George has said.
Answering questions posed by media persons here on Monday about land acquisition for metro suffering huge delays, he said that all-out efforts were being made to acquire a few more pockets of land in the Aluva-Maharaja’s College ground corridor where civil works had picked up pace. “We do not intend to harm any business establishment. In Seematti’s case, we decided to opt for forcible land acquisition since many rounds of negotiations held for over a year did not yield results. KMRL has asked the District Collector to speed up the acquisition of land belonging to the textile firm.”
On the firm seeking an entry from Banerjee Road even if its land is acquired, Mr George said that conditional land acquisition was unheard of in India. The government was paying a compensation of Rs 52 lakh per cent of land on MG Road. “Any question of allowing entry (from Banerjee Road) can be decided on later after studying the metro viaduct’s safety and related issues.”