High expectations from budget

MP stresses need for setting up AIIMS in Kozhikode to benefit Malabar region

Kozhikode has high expectations from the Union Budget 2017 which will be presented in Parliament on Wednesday.

One of the major projects that needs revival is the National Institute for Research and Development in Defence Shipbuilding (Nirdesh) at Chaliyam here. “The State government has been pursuing the matter with the Centre,” V.K.C. Mammed Koya, MLA, said.

The fate of the project is hanging in balance as the Union Finance Ministry has not yet approved the proposal of the Defence Ministry which has sought Rs. 600 crore for the project. Previously, the Finance Ministry had objected to Nirdesh, an autonomous body under the Department of Defence Production of the Union Ministry of Defence, for various reasons including the enormous funding it would require. Former Defence Minister A.K. Antony had laid the foundation stone for the ambitious Rs. 600-crore project in 2011 aimed at achieving ‘self-reliance in the strategic areas of research and development, leading to indigenous construction of warships and submarines.’

Another proposal is the setting up of an All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) in Kozhikode. The Union Ministry of Health had earlier promised that the Centre would establish an AIIMS-like institute in each State.

M.K. Raghavan, MP, who had taken up the matter with the Centre, had pointed out the need for setting up an AIIMS in Kozhikode considering the backwardness of the Malabar region in the health sector. The proposed AIIMS would benefit the people of six districts in north Kerala.

Special schemes

Kozhikode is also pinning hopes on the special schemes in manufacturing sector and for home-grown start-ups. Only with new initiatives, the city can attract information technology (IT) investments at the government-owned Cyberpark and the UL Cyberpark. The State government expects that the third major IT facility under the hub-and-spoke infrastructure model, after Technopark in Thiruvananthapuram and Infopark in Kochi, will get a boost.

Although for the first time the Railway Budget will be merged with the Union Budget, Confederation of All India Rail Users chairman C.E. Chakkunny said Kozhikode needed more funding for upgrading the railway station, establishing a pit lane and introduction of new trains such as Jan Shatabdi Express, Garib Rath and Intercity Express between Kozhikode and Bengaluru. “Unfortunately, the State has to share 50% of the cost for all projects, ” he said.

He also sought super-fast trains from Mangaluru to Thiruvananthapuram to meet the needs of increasing number of passengers between these two stations.