THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Even as the UDF government has unveiled Mission Samudra, an ambitious maritime development programme with a Rs 400-crore allocation to transform Keralam into a port led economy, the state’s mega inland water transport initiative — the West Coast Canal Development Project — is facing an uncertain future with land acquisition and rehabilitation activities coming to a standstill amid fund crunch.
Uncertainty looms large over the project with KIIFB, the principal financing agency, virtually halting financial support and thereby putting on hold land acquisition and rehabilitation for the project proposed as a major passenger and cargo transport corridor connecting Kovalam in Thiruvananthapuram district with Bekal in Kasaragod.
According to officials, Mission Samudra seeks to strengthen coastal shipping and improve connectivity between ports during the initial two phases and offers little to the inland waterway project. Land acquisition and rehabilitation have been suspended along the Parvathy Puthanar canal in Thiruvananthapuram and along the northern stretches of the Mahe-Valapattanam and Nileshwar-Bekal canals.
“The project has not officially been wound up, but progress is impossible without funds,” said an official associated with the project.
“KIIFB was our primary financing agency for the inland waterway project. However, with its operations virtually paralysed amid ongoing inquiries and a sharp drop in budget allocation, we were directed to temporarily halt land acquisition activities. If KIIFB freezes its financial support, the primary funding source vanishes entirely, leaving the future of the waterway in limbo.”
The official said that creating new canal cuts along the Mahe-Valapattanam and Nileshwar-Bekal sectors is essential to ensure uninterrupted, end-to-end connectivity along the West Coast Canal.
“The entire process has been hit due to the current financial freeze. The Akkulam-Chettuva stretch is yet to achieve continuous connectivity owing to various bottlenecks. The second stretch, from Kottappuram to Kozhikode, is also awaiting financial support from the Centre,” the official said.
So far, the government has spent around Rs 116.07 crore for rehabilitation and around 874 families and around 226 more families need to be rehabilitated in the Varkala, Kadinamkulam and Thiruvananthapuram areas.
“The project had started making progress but the government changed as things were moving forward. The budgetary allocation is also low and if KIIFB is not functioning as a funding source, we don’t know how the project can move forward,” a source said.