NICDIT: Various depts asked to speed up further actions

With the Union government deciding to extend the Chennai-Bengaluru industrial corridor to Coimbatore and Kochi as part of NICDIT, Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan on Saturday asked various departments to speed up action related to the project.

The National Industrial Corridor Development and Implementation Trust had recently conveyed to the state government its decision to extend the corridor.

A high-level meeting was chaired by the Chief Minister, in which Chief Secretary Tom Jose, Industries Pricipal Secretary K Ilangovan, Revenue Principal Secretary V Venu and Kerala State Industrial Development Corporation Managing Director Sanjay Kaul were among those who participated.

About 1800 acres of land has to be acquired for the manufacturing cluster on the Thrissur-Palakkad area.

The Chief Minister directed the District Collectors of Palakkad and Thrissur to take steps to speed up the land acquisition process, a press release from the Chief Minister's office said.

The meeting also decided to identify appropriate land at Kochi for setting up industrial centres as part of the NICDIT.

Kerala had for long been pleading to include the state in the corridor and Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan had made a strong pitch for the same.

The setting up of the corridor would contribute to developing manufacturing industries in the region and transform the Kochi-Palakkad region into a major manufacturing hub of South India.

Two integrated manufacturing clusters are to be developed-- at Palakkad and Salem in Tamil Nadu.

The state and central governments would jointly form a special purpose vehicle to manage the clusters, it was stated.

The cluster in Kerala will come up on either side of the Kochi-Salem national highway and is expected to provide 10,000 jobs.