THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The slaughter house project of Thiruvananthapuram Corporation is finally expected to see light with Kerala Electrical and Allied Engineering (KEL) company securing the bid. This is, however, one among the many tenders called and awarded for the slaughterhouse in the past few years. The tender before last was also secured by KEL for Rs 9.58 crore. However, it didn’t take off when KEL, along with a Lucknow-based company which was awarded the tender sought 50 per cent of the tender amount for mobilisation. This time, KEL was the only government body which submitted the tender and the corporation is now forced to move forward with them. A meeting to discuss the technical sanction for the project will be held before January 15 according to corporation’s engineering wing officials.
“It is one of the prestigious projects of the corporation and we must move with a government body. We are hoping that this time around there won’t be many issues,” said Palayam Rajan, chairperson, Town Planning Standing Committee. A top official in the engineering wing confirmed the development and said, “Once the meeting for technical sanction is held, we will move on to the financial part. We expect a smooth execution this time.”
Over the past seven years since the closure of traditional slaughterhouse of the corporation in Kunnukuzhi by the Pollution Control Board (PCB), the Corporation has made several attempts to revive the slaughterhouse, but all of it failed after the initial enthusiasm. Though the civic body had called for an Expression of Interest (EoI) from companies to modernise the slaughterhouse, all of them dropped out citing various reasons.
In the absence of a legal slaughterhouse, illegal units have flourished across the city. The lack of a legal slaughterhouse had also prevented the corporation from taking action against illegal ones.