With a view to tapping development opportunities, the State government will acquire around 600 acres on both sides of the West Coast Canal that runs almost parallel to the Arabian Sea and National Highway covering around 10 coastal districts in Kerala. The State is looking to create development opportunities in sectors such as industry, renewable energy, transport, tourism, trade, and agriculture, for which private land will have to be made available to the investors on the basis of the State’s public-private partnership (PPP) policy.
The State government has approved the proposal to transform the West Coast Canal into an economic trade corridor by inviting private investors to set up business. The Cabinet had recently given approval to conduct a study for assessment of economic development opportunities along the 616 km-long WCC by dividing the project area into 13 reaches.
The objective of the study is to consolidate the economic development opportunities of individual reaches to form an overall master plan and detailed project report for the waterway-oriented development for the entire corridor from Kovalam to Bekal. Once the master plan is prepared for each reach, land parcels identified for each development opportunity will be acquired by the government, for which ₹300 crore has been earmarked.
