The State government will hand over details of the land to be acquired for setting up the campus of the proposed Indian Institute for Technology (IIT) on the outskirts of Palakkad town to the Union government by the last week of October.
Talking to The Hindu here, M. Sherif, special officer deputed by the State government for the land acquisition, said he had visited the selected area spread over Pudussery West and Pudussery Central villages on Friday morning, and interacted with the local community, which expressed readiness to hand over the land in its possession.
Mr. Sherif said 650 acres of land would be acquired for the campus. The process would begin on a war-footing once the State government received the go-ahead from the Union Ministry of Human Resource Development.
Connectivity issuesThe Union government had directed the State government to acquire more than 500 acres of land with rail and road connectivity, apart from availability of water. Pudussery was an area with all these facilities, Mr. Sherif said. Moreover, it could be easily accessed from the Coimbatore airport through National Highway-47. His visit, Mr. Sherif said, was intended to verify the facilities available at Pudussery.
The area was occupied by 60 families, and they had expressed their readiness to relocate if compensated properly. The land acquisition would be hassle free, he said.
Revenue officials who accompanied Mr. Sherif said the Union and the State governments had reached a consensus that the IIT must be established in Palakkad keeping in view its strategic location in the middle of the State and its proximity to Tamil Nadu’s second largest city, Coimbatore. Palakkad and Shoranur junctions would ensure sufficient rail connectivity. The area could be easily accessed by road from Bangalore, Chennai, Thiruvananthapuram, and Kochi.
