The Centre’s decision to extend national industrial corridor to Kochi through Coimbatore is expected to spur overall development and generate job opportunities in the State

Kerala’s dreams of evolving as a potential investors’ destination and an industrial hub are set to materialise at last. The State will soon earn a place of pride in the industrial map of the country.

The Centre’s decision to extend the national industrial corridor to Kochi through Coimbatore is expected to spur overall development and generate job opportunities, which the educated unemployed have been waiting for long.

Ideological differences apart, the National Democratic Alliance and the Left Democratic Front governments have resolved to partner in the State’s development. The National Industrial Corridor Development and Implementation Trust (NICDIT) and the State government are working hand-in-hand to attain the goal.

Industries Department sources told The Hindu that the State support agreement, which is the crucial first step of the project, would be inked soon and that would follow the shareholders’ agreement. Both pacts were expected to be inked in November and that would fast-track the the corridor which would have townships comprising a whole hog of industries ranging from electronics, food processing, agro-based units, IT, and traditional industries. This was expected to generate at least 10,000 job opportunities.

Agreement drafts with Centre

The drafts of both agreements had been drawn up and forwarded to the Centre for legal vetting and it was expected to be cleared soon, the sources said.

The corridor will substantially contribute to developing manufacturing industries in the region and transform the Kochi-Palakkad region into a major manufacturing hub of southern India. Once established, the industrial activity will be dispersed to other regions of the State, with forward and backward linkages.

The natural gas infrastructure will play a pivotal role for various applications, including power generation, heating and cooling in various industries, and process requirement in industrial units.

To aid reverse migration

The corridor is expected to initiate reverse migration, attracting the young manpower from the State engaged in various manufacturing activities, including high-end engineering works. It would also trigger the overall economic growth of the State and its employment generation on a sustainable mode.

Quite significantly, the project has been taken up at a time when the process of reverse migration from the Gulf countries is threatening to derail the State’s economy that is largely dependent on NRI deposits and returns. Though not a panacea for all such issues, the corridor is expected to provide job opportunities to the returnees to a considerable extent.

The Kerala State Industrial Development Corporation and Kinfra are the two pivotal agencies that are spearheading the corridor development.

Earlier, the NICDIT had insisted on providing 2,000 acres to 5,000 acres for setting up integrated manufacturing clusters. But the State government apprised the Centre of the problems in securing such huge tracts of land and it conceded to scale it down to 1,800 acres.

This land has been identified in Palakkad, Kannambra, Uzhalapathy, and Puthussery. A major parcel of the land is already in the possession of Kinfra. Land acquisition is a major challenge in a densely populated State such as Kerala. Since the agencies concerned have evolved a system for identifying and acquiring land, the government could exude confidence of crossing a major hurdle, sources said.

Kochi, Palakkad in first phase

The first phase of development will cover Kochi and and Palakkad and the second phase Kannur. Since the Centre and State governments are sharing the cost equally, the State’s investment will be the cost of land acquisition.

Each industrial township will be self-contained independent units with schools, hospitals, hotels, residential apartments, and other infrastructure. These townships will be independent entities which will be bound by all rules and regulations in force, but will be outside the purview of local self-government institutions.

Each township in Kochi, Palakkad, and Kannur will have a governing authority. Each governing authority may comprise eight directors, the sources said.

Going by the present pace, it could be assumed that the concerted efforts being made for land acquisition and securing clearances will ensure that work on the project will be completed within a specific time frame. And that would set the path for rewriting the industrial scenario of the State in a big way, no doubt.