)
Kerala chief minister Oommen Chandy today announced 21 projects as a solution to the immediate problems of coastal Alappuzha district. For protecting the coastal area from sea erosion a project of Rs 131.64 crore has been included. This is inclusive of the Rs 46.39-crore that was sanctioned earlier for constructing a permanent sea wall of 79 km in the district. Special projects are there for construction of sea walls at Purakkad and Arthunkal area. He also said apart from this, sea wall construction activities would commence soon at Harippad and Arattupuzha. While Rs 65 lakh would be given to IIT, Madras, to conduct an expert study regarding this, Rs 5.9 crore would be given to re-start the working of Komalapuram spinning mill.
It has been proposed to form Bhavanabharatham cooperative society with district collector as chairman for constructing houses for the homeless. The project will be carried out with the fund collected from voluntary organisations and from corporate social responsibility fund of various companies. Chandy also informed that the expert committee on urban development would recommend the developments to be carried out in Chengannur, which is one of the base camp of Sabarimala pilgrim centre.
A co-operative society on the lines of Sivakasi would be formed with sub collector as chairperson in the Thuravoor region to provide protection and job security for 1,500 people involved in cracker manufacturing. Also, 50 more paddy husker machines would be bought for the Kuttanadu farming region, he said.
