The compensation amount for the parties who have surrendered their land for the preparatory works of Kochi Metro Rail will be given at the earliest, district administration officials have said. A sum of Rs 48.88 crore has been earmarked for the land acquisition. The district administration has already paid Rs 21.59 crore as compensation for the land acquired, taking the total fund allocation for the purpose to Rs 70.47 crore. The preparatory works include the widening of Banerjee Road, M G Road, South Railway Station Road and for the construction of new Rail Overbridge near KSRTC station and the foot overbridge.
The District Collector’s office will start the distribution of compensation amount as per the completion of the assessment of the documents submitted by persons those who have surrendered the land. “A consensus has been reached between the parties concerned and the district-level purchase Committee on the price of the land acquired. The compensation package was approved by the State High-level Committee. Once the land acquisition for the preparatory works is completed, the district administration will begin the procedures for acquiring land for the project,” the District Collector said in a statement. As a first step, the district administration has finalised the price for the land to be acquired for the Metro yard to come up at Muttam. The cost of one cent of land at Muttam has been finalised at `1.02 lakh and a total of 41 acres of land will be acquired at the site. The land at the proposed site belongs to 116 persons, and all the plots will be acquired after handing over 80 per cent of compensation amount to all the parties. The remaining 20 per cent compensation amount will be given after receiving the nod from the High-level Committee.
For the construction of the Metro stations, Via Ducts and the Muttam Yard, a total of 78.89 acres need to be acquired. Out of the total land, 20.60 acres belong to the state government.
The district administration will also take steps to hand over 17.3 acres of land, identified for Metro Business District at Kakkanad, to KMRL. A total of 33 acres was identified for the Business Village while another 2333.57 acres need to be acquired for the Metro Village to come up at Muttam.