In the wake of Wednesday’s fire, the merchant fraternity at S.M. Street has offered its support to the Heritage Street Project that aims, among other things, to put in place a fire-fighting mechanism.
The merchants’ concerns about the project, which will be implemented through land pooling, will be raised at a high-level meeting to be held at the Kozhikode Collectorate on Saturday.
Ahead of this, the traders, mainly those from S.M. Street, will hold a separate meeting on Friday to fine-tune their stance.
“Our main concern is about the actual ownership of the place after the project implementation. We are not going to accept the idea of handing property rights to the district administration,” says M. Ashraf, district general secretary of the Kerala Vyapari Vyavasayi Ekopana Samiti (KVVES).
Mr. Ashraf, who mediates between the traders and the district administration on the proposal, said the shop owners at S.M. Street would definitely cooperate with the heritage project if the district administration gives them unconditional ownership of their property.
Some of the traders had earlier resisted the project arguing that it would severely affect their daily income. “If the confusion over property ownership is cleared, we can go ahead with the heritage project.
All other complaints can be settled with the mediation of merchant association leaders,” he said.
The ₹330-crore project was first proposed by the Calicut Development Authority (CDA) and it lost steam midway with the government’s decision to disband the CDA. Officials point out that the project, however, could be taken up for implementation by the Tourism Department directly on the basis of the previous CDA blueprint.
