Upset over the State government’s lukewarm response, Mayor V.K.C. Mammed Koya has urged Minister for Urban Affairs Manjalamkuzhi Ali to speed up bureaucratic procedures to publish the master plan for Kozhikode urban area.
The government has been sitting on the file of the Kozhikode master plan for the past six months. The 300-page final draft of the master plan, was sent to the government by the Joint Town Planning Committee (JTPC), chaired by former Mayor A.K. Premajam in August.
Mr. Koya told The Hindu on Tuesday that he had personally met the Minister and Local-Self Government Department (Urban Affairs) Secretary A.P.M. Mohammed Hanish and apprised him of the delay to get the file cleared by the government. The master plan had been vetted by the Department of Law a week ago. Now, it was only a technical matter for its approval, he added.
Likely to be cleared before poll notification
Government officials said that the file would be cleared before the end of the ongoing Assembly session. They also hope that the government clears it before the notification of the Assembly polls.
At present, the Kozhikode urban area relied upon the third master plan for city prepared by the Calicut Development Authority in 1980. That means that if anyone approached the corporation with a project, the civic body had no choice but to reject it. “But, the applicant goes to court and get a favourable verdict, ” Mr. Koya said.
The Kozhikode urban area comprises the Kozhikode Corporation, Feroke and Ramanattukara municipalities and Olavanna and Feroke grama panchayats. The master plan has proposed mobility hubs, IT parks and Special Economic Zones at Beypore, landward side of Kozhikode Beach and Olavanna industrial centre.
Public opinion
After the government gives approval to publish the master plan, JTPC will again have to seek the opinion and suggestion from the public. It is a stipulated two-month time. A new committee headed by the Mayor has to be constituted again to incorporate any suitable suggestions from the public.
Then only the notification of the final master plan will be done in the State gazette. Possibly it would come into force after the formation of the next State government, the officials said.
