The Kochi Metro Rail Ltd has handed over Rs 25 crore to the district administration for land acquisition. This money will be used to pay the landowners who have already given consent to hand over land.
With this, the money handed over to the district administration for land acquisition and rehabilitation has gone up to Rs 46 crore.
Meanwhile, the district administration has initiated steps for land acquisition for the project.
It requires approximately 40.40 hectares, while more land will be acquired for constructing a metro village adjacent to the proposed coach-maintenance yard in Muttom, near Aluva.
The Revenue Department has constituted three teams of surveyors for speeding up land acquisition process. District Collector P.I. Sheikh Pareeth, a member of the Kochi Metro Director Board, has asked them to hasten the process.
Priority
Priority has been given to acquiring land for locating the metro stations, to widen narrow portions in the Edapally-Aluva stretch of NH 47 and to construct via ducts which will be located away from the road median at a few places.
February has been fixed as the revised deadline to take possession of the requisite land for the project. The widening of the Town Hall-Madhava Pharmacy Junction stretch into four-lane will begin once a few more plots are acquired on the stretch.
The KMRL will also ink an MoU with the NHAI to widen the NH 47, once the ongoing survey is over in another week. Around 1.70 hectares of land is required for this.