The government is likely to shelve the much-touted water treatment plant project at Kalamassery owing to non-availability of land.
The 185-million-litres-a-day water supply augmentation project has become a non-starter four years after it was announced. It was even granted an administrative sanction of ₹238.5 crore in 2015.
Though the project requires around 10 acres, it is learnt that the plan was devised without identifying the land. The administrative sanction for the plant had lapsed last year. Incidentally, the previous UDF government had hurriedly inaugurated the work for the project just before the Assembly elections in 2016 without any agreement on the land required. The function was held on the land under Kinfra, which is said to be disputed.
Later, the Kerala Water Authority (KWA) was asked to submit a fresh project report to revive the administrative sanction. The KWA is learnt to have submitted the report. Since the agreement with Kinfra did not work out owing to the dispute over the land, there was another move to identify the land owned by HMT next to Pipeline Road. The project involved the construction of a treatment plant and the laying of a raw water pipeline from Aluva.
According to sources in the KWA, the project had received administrative sanction with 15 acres identified near HMT School. However, with legal issues not getting sorted out, another land with Kinfra was identified for the project. As this too got caught in legal tangles, the project could not take off. The KWA had also approached the district administration and conducted a survey at Kalamassery to find land for the project, but to no avail.
