With the Public Works Department completing a survey last week, the authorities are all set to pull down NGO Quarters buildings in Kakkanad. The property will shortly be handed over to the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation for commercial development.
“We have already razed down about two quarters in the area and received further directions with regard to demolishing a couple of buildings more. The demolition of the remaining buildings will be carried out as soon as we get the survey report, which is expected in the next couple of days,” said a senior official with the PWD buildings division.
The 17-acre property, owned by the PWD, houses about 162 quarters buildings, of which 107 houses are already lying vacant. The remaining 55 houses will be acquired once the residents leave them and they will be demolished and handed over to DMRC.
Earlier last week, the PWD carried out a detailed survey of the buildings in the property and has issued notices to some of the occupants. “Even the condition of some of the quarters that are occupied is pathetic, their plumbing and electrical installations in bad shape,” the officials said, adding that dozens of these quarters lie vacant for lack of repair while parts of some have already collapsed.
The survey also revealed that there were several illegal occupants in these quarters, who had been overstaying in the quarters for the past many years.
There are more than 500 quarters for government servants in Kakkanad, some of them built as early as 1957 under the aegis of the first Kerala government.
Earlier, the revenue department agreed to transfer the land under the possession of the PWD to Kochi Metro Rail Limited (KMRL) for using it for commercial purposes as part of income generation.
As part of it, the Kochi Metro Rail Limited has appointed a consultant agency to prepare the land utilisation plan for the 17-acre area. “The idea is to find additional ways of revenue generation other than from the metro project. A project-design consultant has been entrusted to work out plans to develop the area into a business centre that will generate optimum revenue from the land,” said a KMRL official.
