In a significant move touted as a booster dose to the slackened construction activities in the state, the LDF government on Wednesday decided to exempt buildings up to 20,000 square meters from obtaining a ‘quarrying permit’.
As per the prevailing rules, quarrying permit is mandatory for construction of buildings of 300 square metres area or above.
The permit is given to accord sanction for removing earth from the construction site for the purpose of basement construction. To obtain such permit, the rules insist that the builder should produce ‘no-objection’ statement from the owners of nearby structures within 50-metre radius.
The rules wanted them to produce revenue documents, survey map of the adjacent areas as also the environmental clearance for the quarrying permit.
Union government has recently made environmental clearance not mandatory for buildings up to 20,000 square metres. There had been demand that Kerala government should emulate the Union government decision. It was after discussing in detail about such demands that the cabinet took the decision, a communique from the office of the chief minister said.
Cabinet has also approved the detailed project report (DPR) of the Thiruvananthapuram-Kasaragod semi high speed rail corridor, Silver Line.
The approval was given with minor changes in the alignment proposed by the Kerala Rail Development Corporation Ltd (K-rail), a joint venture of the Indian Railways and the Kerala government. The implementing agency can now approach international funding agencies such as JICA, KFW, ADB and AIIB.
The feasibility report of the project had proposed the line to pass through Mahe. But as per the changes made by the cabinet, the line will be skipping Mahe. While the Kasaragod-Tirur stretch of Silver Line will run parallel to the existing rail line the Tirur-Thiruvananthapuram section will deviate from the present one.
The cost of the project is estimated at Rs 63,941 crore. It is expected to be completed by 2025. Trains will be able to run up to a speed of 200 KM per hour on the two-lane greenfield corridor.
Starting from Thiruvananthapuram, trains on the Silver Line will reach Kasaragod in four hours, covering a distance of 529.45 km through 11 districts. The running time between the busy Thiruvananthapuram-Ernakulam stretch will be one-and-a-half hours.
Postings: The cabinet decided to give additional charge of KSRTC MD to Social Welfare secretary Biju Prabhakar.
Transport department principal secretary K R Jyothilal would hold the additional charge of KSRTC chairman.