COIMBATORE: The Electronics Corporation of Tamil Nadu Limited (ELCOT) has scrapped the tender for the master plan to establish a Tech City in an area of 321.74 acres at Somayampalayam village after the Madras High Court issued a stay on the project in July 2024.
A press release issued by district collector Kranthi Kumar on Friday stated that the government plans to make changes in the plan and float a fresh tender.
In February 2024, ELCOT called for bids to develop a Tech City under the public-private partnership model. It was proposed to have housing units, shopping malls, retail outlets, grade A office spaces, schools, hospitals, recreational areas, hotels, multiplex screens, eco-parks along with integrated road connectivity, uninterrupted power and water supply along with advanced OFC infrastructure among others.
According to sources, the land identified for the project in Somayampalayam falls under the Coimbatore forest range, where human-elephant conflicts happen frequently. The foothills of Maruthamalai, two universities and government law college are located in Somayampalayam and the movement of people causes disturbance to wildlife.
Pointing out that the proposed site is sandwiched between a forest boundary and two government universities, S Muralidharan , an activist based in Coimbatore, moved the Madras High Court in May 2024 stating that human-animal conflict would escalate if the tech city is established in Somayampalayam. On June 28, 2024, the court issued a stay on the project and extended it on July 5, 2024. The stay is yet to be vacated. Due to this, the government has the government has scrapped the tender floated earlier and is is considering to revise the project, sources said.
When contacted, Collector Kranthi Kumar Pati, said, “A litigation has been filed against the project claiming that the place comes within 150 metres from the forest area. Following it, a team from ELCOT reviewed the place again. If the land under the 150 metres area is removed from the project, the area of the proposed project will be reduced. So, it is taken into the consideration by the government. The state government will make a final decision on it.”