Hopes are high that Palakkad, the agri-dominated district of the State, is on its way to becoming the next industrial destination with Chief Minister Oommen Chandy’s latest announcement that the Kanjikode rail coach factory will start this year and the proposed Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) may also become a reality.
Mr. Chandy made the announcement during the foundation stone-laying ceremony of the Government Medical College here on Monday.
The announcement by the Chief Minister that the State government gave top priority to the overall development of Palakkad would be a big boost in its industrial and agriculture development, M. Paramasivam, president, Kanjikode Industries Forum, said. Though the foundation stone for Rail Coach Factory was done by former Union Minister for Railway Dinesh Trivedi on February 22, 2012, the work could not be started as the Railways could not find a partner to take up the project under the PPP.
The Chief Minister said he held discussions with the Union Railway Minister and the Railway Board authorities last week and they had promised that a partner for the project was being finalised. The work would start by this year, he said.
Big boost
Mr. Paramasivam said though the delay of starting the coach factory work caused anxiety, the promise of the Chief Minister that the construction of the coach factory would start this year, would be a big boost for the development of Palakkad district as a whole.
He said the new Government Medical College, the coach factory and the IIT would make the Kanjikode-Pudussery-Walayar industrial belt in the district a new industrial investment destination. The Kanjikode Coach Factory would be the second one in south India after the Perambur Coach Factory near Chennai.
The coach factory would bring an industrial boom, as nearly 100 ancillary units would come up to supply equipments to the factory. It would also be a big boom for the nearly 50 steel manufacturing units functioning in the Kanjikode industrial area.
It would also provide employment to thousands of persons directly under the Railways and large number of others in ancillary units, the Railway sources here said. Thus, the coach factory would make Palakkad a main centre of Railways adding more infrastructure and passenger amenities, they said. Already the Bharat Earth movers Limited, a mini-ratna company under the Ministry of Defence, had started two new manufacturing units at Kanjikode with an investment of over Rs.300 crore.
For its third phase, 600 acres of land had been acquired adjacent to its existing units. The work on the construction of the new unit would begin shortly.
Textile park
An integrated textile park, constructed by Kinfra on a 300-acre plot nearby, to house major textile units had also started functioning. The proximity of Palakkad to the industrial city of Coimbatore and the textile city of Tirupur was an added advantage to the textile industry particularly.
“If the IIT is also set up here, it will be a big boom for industrial and educational developments of the district and the State as a whole,” said K.S. Mani of the Palakkad Management Association.
