Kerala - Kochi   

Vallarpadam NH link: roadblocks being cleared

KOCHI: The roadblocks in putting in place the four-lane highway connectivity for the proposed Vallarpadam International Container Transhipment Terminal are being removed with the land acquisition and documentation processes gathering pace.

District Collector A.P.M. Mohammed Hanish on Wednesday said that out of the 110 acres required for the road link, the documentation of 50 acres had already been completed. Documentation of another 47 acres, for which the landowners have given the consent, was underway, he said.

The fixation of the value of land in Eloor village to be acquired would be fixed at a State-level purchase committee meeting convened by the Chief Secretary in Thiruvananthapuram on Thursday.

Regarding the rest of the land to be acquired, the owners of which are yet to give consent, the Land Acquisition Act would be invoked, if needed, the Collector said. However, doors to negotiations were still open, he said.

He said that the dispute persisting between FACT and National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) regarding the acquisition of a road going through the premises of the former was expected to be resolved during a high-level meeting scheduled for October 9. The dispute is over whether FACT needed to be paid compensation, as NHAI was of the stand that the road in question was a public one and therefore no compensation needed to be paid to the public sector unit.

A report on the dispute submitted by the Collector was placed before a high-level meeting held in Delhi last month. In the report the Collector had stated that FACT was eligible to receive compensation, on the ground that it held title deeds for the land on which the road is situated.

He said that the high-level meeting had almost agreed in principle to pay compensation to FACT. If the compensation were to be paid ultimately, FACT would get an amount to the tune of Rs.20 crore.

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