How the next 10 years will look like in terms of development in Kerala.

Kerala, considered to be one of the most beautiful Indian coastal states noted for its distinct heritage and culture. Its lush, unspoiled tropical beauty, exotic locales, and quiet backwaters draw visitors from all over the world looking for a relaxing holiday.

Kerala is noted for its abundant fauna and ornate temples, in addition to its attractive environment, and also known as God’s own country, has a projected population of 34,808,568 in the year 2021.

Considered to be one of the top 10 economies in the country at a state level, but it’s majorly considered a democratic welfare economy, meaning the state Government promotes the economy by creating schemes or the money flows in from outside the state.

Because of this Kerala was facing a major problem of employable people leaving the state for job opportunities in gulf countries, over 30 Million people left for gulf countries, and more than that picked career opportunities out of the state.

A report by Anarock stated that in the year 2020-21, the four major industries that generated over half of Kerala’s economy would receive only a 13 percent budget allocation.

For these industries to thrive, the government must allow for alternative finance in the form of PE/VC or FDI.

For this exact reason, it’s very crucial for Kerala to become self-reliant, the solution which the Kerala government proposed was following mega projects.

Gift City, Kochi

Kochi, being Kerala’s economic centre, offers a wealth of opportunities for real estate investment. Kochi is drawing a huge number of individuals from other states due to the construction of prominent IT parks such as Infopark, Smart City, and CSEZ (Cochin Special Economic Zone).

The first project that has been approved by the National Industrial Corridor Development and Implementation Trust (NICDIT) on 27th August 2020 is The Kochi Global Industrial Finance and Trade City or GIFT city.

After being a huge success in Gandhinagar, Gujarat the GIFT City with a similar strategic design will be built on 220 hectares of land in Aluva, a strategic site near Cochin International Airport in Kerala.

The state government has given administrative approval for the establishment and development of GIFT City, as well as sanctioned Rs 540 crore for the acquisition of land, which would be its part of the project, proposed to be ready by June 2021.

The goal is to attract investment for the development of trunk infrastructure worth Rs 1,600 crore, as well as to provide a boost to the construction of PPP infrastructure worth Rs 18,000 crore over a ten-year period.

The Financial/Business Centre is envisioned as an essential element of the GIFT city Project, serving as a development driver for the city, and will be supported by knowledge-based businesses. It would create an integrated environment for the development of internationally competitive high-tech services and a financial hub.

The silver line rail project

The Union Ministry approved the Kerala Silver line rail project with a massive budget of 

Rs. 66,000  Crore on 16th of April 2021 and acquired the total land of 1383 Hectares out of which, 1198 Hectares land is private.

Due to the high number of level crossings and steep bends, the quickest train takes around 12 hours to traverse a total length of 560 kilometres at an average speed of 45 kilometres per hour.

According to data by Kerala rail, the train traffic on the existing double line between Thiruvananthapuram and Kasaragod has grown dramatically, with certain portions reaching capacity utilisation rates of more than 115%. In light of the foregoing, the government has chosen to construct a Semi-High-Speed Rail (SilverLine) corridor.

The 529.45 km SilverLine corridor linking Kasaragod and Thiruvananthapuram, with an operating speed of 200kmph, eases transportation between the state’s north and south ends and decreases overall travel time to less than 4 hours, compared to the current 10 to 12 hours. Kollam, Chengannur, Kottayam, Ernakulam, Kochi Airport, Thrissur, Tirur, Kozhikode, and Kannur are among the intermediate stops.

The unofficial deadline for the Silver line rail project to be finished is 2025.

Vizhinjam International Seaport Limited

The Vizhinjam International Deepwater Multipurpose Seaport, also known as the Vizhinjam International Seaport and the Port of Trivandrum, is a port in Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala, commenced the construction on 5 th December 2015, is scheduled to open in June of 2021 on the Arabian Sea coast at Vizhinjam.

The port is presently being built on a landlord model with a Public-Private Partnership component on a design, build, finance, operate, and transfer (“DBFOT”) basis.

According to a report by Anarock, during fiscal 2019, India’s major ports handled 699.05 million tonnes of cargo. During the same time period, Cochin port handled more than 4.6 percent of all cargo handled by India’s main ports combined. Cochin port grew with a 6.65 percent CAGR between fiscal 2008 and fiscal 2019, compared to India’s 2.74 percent CAGR over the same time.

Another important port, the Vizhinjam Port near Thiruvananthapuram, was supposed to open by the end of 2019, however, it won’t be ready until October 2020. By 2022, it is expected to handle an extra 1.41 million tonnes of cargo.

Following are several major advantages for Vizhinjam International Seaport Limited —

• Availability of 20m contour within one nautical mile from the coast.
• Minimal littoral drift along the coast, hardly any maintenance dredging required.
• Links to national/regional road, rail network
• Flexibility in design and expansion being a Greenfield project
• Proximity to the International shipping route

The government of Kerala has noted several major shifts that the development of Vizhinjam International Seaport Limited will bring, for the same reason It has established a separate company, Vizhinjam International Seaport Limited (VISL), as a special purpose Government company (wholly owned by the Government of Kerala), to act as the implementing agency for the development of the greenfield port at Vizhinjam in the Thiruvananthapuram district of Kerala.

The development of this port would allow India to handle cargo that is now handled by other worldwide counterparts such as Salalah (Oman), Al Fujairah (UAE), Colombo, Singapore, and West Port/Malaysia.

Kochi Metro

Kochi already has a functioning and running metro facility but, an expansion in phase 2 and 3 has been put in motion. With phase 2 already approved, phase 3 is under the planning stage.

The Kerala Government authorised the Kochi Metro Phase 2 project, which includes a new 11.2 kilometre Pink Line and 11 stops, in July 2018 at a cost of Rs 2,310 crore.

The building of a spur line from Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium to Infopark II in Kakkanad is part of this phase. The detailed project report (DPR) for this phase is presently pending clearance from the central government and will most likely be funded by the Agence Française de Développement (AFD).

Initially, Kochi Metro Rail Ltd.’s major goal was to run a metro line, but they quickly recognised that the most important thing they’d be able to do is to transition residents from personal automobiles to public transportation.

Kochi Metro, the country’s first metro system with an integrated multimodal transport system, would provide the city a much-needed lift while offering end-to-end connectivity.

Among the strategic objectives are

• To build a metro line to Fort Cochin To establish transportation hubs with metro, bus, and train connections.
• To boost the region’s economic vitality by improving infrastructure, leading in further development of the greater Kochi area as an economic, transportation, and tourism centre.

K-FON

K-FON (Kerala Fibre Optic Network): An ambitious project spending Rs 1628.35 crore to deliver low-cost high-speed internet to the underprivileged.

Kerala has been on a transformational path since its foray into digitization in the early 2000s. With the spread of internet technology and growing levels of e-literacy, the government was forced to adopt an e-delivery manner of information and services to its inhabitants.

From government service dissemination centres like FRIENDS in the 2000s to the Service and Payroll Administrative Repository for Kerala (SPARK), e-Health, e-Office, e-Procurement, CCTNS, e-District, SDPK, and other e-Governance services in 2020, the demand for e-Governance services that affect the lives of the common man continues to grow. The state has been a forerunner in the country in terms of investing in core digital infrastructure to offer e-Government services.

With significant government operations digitized, the State Data Centre (SDC) is the country’s first of its type, dedicated only to hosting e-Governance applications. To put it another way, all government entities in the state rely on the SDC to carry out their daily activities.

Kerala State Wide Area Network (KSWAN) is the state’s primary network infrastructure for e-governance. However, current connectivity via KSWAN is restricted to around 3,800 government offices for the delivery of e-Gov services. This infrastructure makes use of bandwidth given by Service Providers rather than RoW provided by the Government.

Because there are no established SLAs for such bandwidth provisioning, the government has very little influence over maintaining a dependable, resilient, and secure network.

The majority of the end institutions are linked wirelessly via KSWAN, with a few others by wired media. The remaining institutions, which are not served by KSWAN, have leased internet bandwidth from service providers in order to access the SDC-hosted apps. KSWAN’s ability to serve the state’s 30,000+ government entities is restricted by access, capacity, and scalability.

As a result, the government saw the necessity to construct a dedicated optical fibre backbone capable of efficient service delivery, ensured Quality of Service (QoS), dependability, redundancy, security, and scalability to meet future bandwidth demands.

KFON is a bold government effort aimed at closing the digital gap. This project will serve as a supplement to the state’s current telecom ecosystem. KFON is founded on the principles of non-discriminatory treatment, as recommended by TRAI, which means that no service provider or business segment receives preferential treatment. It essentially serves as an information superhighway by establishing a solid core and middle-mile infrastructure.

These community-level networks can then link to KFON and give access and services to underserved regions that would otherwise be financially unappealing to mainstream providers. In time, this approach may prompt market forces to intervene and promote competition in delivering better connection services to residents. The government may even consider offering e-Government services to citizens via such networks.

As a result, the KFON network will serve as a solid basis for all G2G, G2C, and B2C interactions. The following are KFON’s primary goals.

Create a core network infrastructure (information highway) with non-discriminatory access for all service providers to bridge the connectivity gap.

Provide a dependable, secure, and scalable intranet that connects all government offices, educational institutions, hospitals, and other organisations.

Collaborate with MSOs, TSPs, and ISPs to provide free internet to low-income families.

The project status of KFON, according to the official website conveys that

95% of NOCs are approved, fiber has been installed over 2766 Kilometers and more than 6400 Kilometer of access fiber has also been spread.

Propylene Derivative Petrochemical Project (PDPP) of BPCL

The complex would manufacture Acrylates, Acrylic Acid, and Oxo-Alcohol, which are now primarily imported, saving around Rs.3700 to 4000 crore per year in foreign money. It will be built at a cost of around Rs 6000 crore.

This will assist the downstream industry by lowering costs, increasing feedstock availability, and optimizing supply chain management. Kochi Refinery is the first in India to develop specialty petrochemicals.

The specialised petrochemicals generated by the BPCL Kochi refinery would inspire Kerala to establish a petrochemical park and other downstream petrochemical industries nearby.

Dharmendra Pradhan, India’s Minister of Petroleum and Natural Gas, tweeted: “BPC Limited’s state-of-the-art Propylene Derivatives Petrochemical Complex is one more step towards creating next-generation infrastructure in the country, which will help harness the full development potential of Kerala and south India.” Following the completion of the PDPP project, the Kochi refinery will have a refining capacity of 5,00,000 metric tonnes of propylene per year, which is one of the major feedstocks for petrochemicals.

The facility will generate 160,000 tonnes of acrylic acid per year, as well as 212,000 tonnes of oxy alcohols and acrylates. It will, directly and indirectly, employ 500 people.

Ro-Ro Vessels at Willingdon Islands, Cochin

The International Waterway Authority of India will deploy two new Roll-on/Roll-off vessels on National Waterway-3 between Bolgatty and Willingdon Island.

The MV Adi Shankara and MV CV Raman Ro-Ro boats will each be capable of carrying six 20-foot trucks, three 20-foot trailer trucks, three 40-foot trailer trucks, and 30 people. It will alleviate traffic congestion on Kochi’s roadways and help trade by lowering transportation costs and transit times. 

The two roll-on roll-off (ro-ro) vessels of the Inland Water Authority of India (IWAI), which will ferry container-laden vehicles from Willingdon Island to Bolgatty Island, would improve communication between the two isles by reducing the 30-km road journey to a 3.50-km canal path. This implies that “convenience, trade, and capacity will increase, while congestion, pollution, and transportation costs would decrease,” Prime Minister Narendra Modi said after launching the warships.

“Kochi is a trading and commercial city. The inhabitants of this city appreciate the importance of time. They also recognize the need for an appropriate connection. That is why the commitment of ro-ro vessels to the country is significant,” he continued.

The vessels were built by Cochin Shipyard at ₹12.50 crore apiece.

Conclusion

With these proposed megaprojects, Kerala is focusing on all the bases of IT sector development, upgrading in quality of life for native citizens, and growth in the business of imports and exports through sea routes. 

Along with that, there is a certain expectation to see a surge in the tourism industry and a boost in their own native economy so, it won’t be a democratic welfare economy anymore.

The exciting upcoming decade for Kerala’s development is going to be a turn of events for the state.

ALSO READ: People In Remote Area Of Jammu & Kashmir’s Rajouri Get Houses Under PMAY