The Kerala State Industrial Development Corporation (KSIDC) is yet to receive any direction from the government for initiating land acquisition for the long-delayed electronics park project at Amballoor. The State government had given its nod to acquire 171 acres for the project.
Sources attributed the continuing uncertainty to the delay in formulating the rules that will determine the implementation of the Union government’s new Land Acquisition Act in the State.
The only possible alternative for the government is to issue a special order for negotiated purchase, which is likely to be a protracted and complicated process.
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The project aims at creating a hub for manufacturing and assembling electronic hardware alongside a Research and Development (R&D) unit.
It is being pointed out that even after initiating the acquisition process it would take at least a year for the land to be made available for the project. The partner for implementing the project under the public-private participation mode can be identified only after the land is made available.
K.F. Kuriakose, Amballoor panchayat president, said the project was being delayed despite the overwhelming cooperation on the part of landowners. “No where in the State would land acquisition be any easier, as all landowners are willing to surrender their land. What more can we do for the project,” he asked.
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Ever since the project was conceived seven years back, the Rs. 750-crore project, has run into one stumbling block after another. At one point the project was almost moved out of Amballoor after the 340 acres initially identified for the land was found to be among the Ramsar sites by the Centre for Water Resources Development and Management (CWRDM).
Mr. Kuriakose, however, said the land characterised as wet land had been exempted almost halving the area for the project. Majority of the land, he said, had been remaining shallow for at least 35 years.