Finance minister K N Balagopal, in his budget speech on Monday, made budgetary allocations for various ongoing projects in Kochi.
Though the only major fresh project for Kochi that found a place in the 2024-25 budget was the Rs 2,150 crore international residential-commercial complex at Marine Drive, no funds have been earmarked for the same.
One of the major allocations is Rs 239 crore set aside for the second phase of Kochi Metro rail. The preparatory works for the second phase from Palarivattom to Infopark at Kakkanad are on. The allocation will help fuel land acquisition and other preliminary works.
The state govt has acquired 600 acres for Petrochemical Park at Ambalamugal. Of this, 481 acres have been transferred to Kinfra for setting up the park. Many firms have already started their projects at the park. The govt has allotted Rs 13 crore for various infrastructure development works of the park. For Cochin Cancer Research Centre (CCRC), the budgetary allocation is Rs 14.5 crore. The Rs 370-crore project is fast nearing completion.
In the industry sector, Rs 200 crore has been allocated for Kochi-Bengaluru industrial corridor and Rs 17 crore for industrial parks in Kochi, Perumbavoor and Palakkad. At the same time, there is no mention of the Gift City project at Ayyampuzha near Angamaly in the budget.
Measures are being taken to establish the ‘India Innovation Centre for Graphene’ in Kochi, with assistance from the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology and Tata Steel, under the leadership of the state government, with an overall investment of Rs 86 crore. An amount of Rs 5 crore is set apart as the state’s initial share for the project.
For Integrated Urban Regeneration and Water Transport System (IURWTS) in Kochi, which has been long pending, the budgetary allocation is Rs 150 crore. Given the fact that the total outlay of the project, the DPR of which was prepared in 2020, is Rs 3800 crore, the allocation is meagre. There is an allocation of Rs 5 crore for the construction of a Museum/Cultural complex in Kochi.
