The Kerala government will fill three vacant assistant executive engineer posts in Ernakulam and seek a dedicated revenue mechanism for public works land acquisition to accelerate infrastructure projects in Kochi, Public Works Department minister P K Basheer said, according to a report by the Times of India.
A government order to fill the three assistant executive engineer positions will be issued on Monday, Basheer said. The move follows representations from Hibi Eden, MP, and T J Vinod, MLA, who raised concerns that key PWD posts had remained vacant for a prolonged period and were affecting the progress of projects in the district.
“I can assure you that the projects won’t suffer due to shortage of personnel,” Basheer said. The minister’s announcement addresses an administrative bottleneck that has been linked to delays in project supervision and implementation, although the report does not specify how long the vacancies have existed or the exact projects assigned to the posts.
The minister cited the Atlantis overbridge as one example of a project that has not progressed as planned. Although Rs 50 crore was allocated for the project in the 2016 budget, it has yet to be realised, the report said. Basheer also referred to the proposed Goshree-Mamangalam Road and the Goshree parallel bridge, saying such projects should be completed on schedule.
Land acquisition, rather than staffing alone, was identified by the minister as the largest obstacle facing city infrastructure projects. According to Basheer, property owners frequently refuse to hand over land until compensation has been fully paid. This can prevent construction from beginning even after a project has received administrative approval and budgetary allocation.
To address the problem, Basheer has requested that the chief minister assign a dedicated deputy collector for revenue and create a specialised revenue wing focused exclusively on PWD land acquisition. The proposed arrangement would separate land acquisition work from the broader responsibilities of the revenue administration.
Under the plan described by the minister, the government would secure loans from financing agencies to ensure that property owners receive compensation within three to six months. Once compensation is secured, the minister said, complete land acquisition could be finished within nine months, allowing construction to begin immediately and proceed according to schedule.
The proposal places financing at the centre of the land-acquisition process. Instead of waiting for compensation funds to become available through the regular budget process, the government would use borrowing to bring forward payments to landowners. The report does not provide details on the financing agencies, loan amount, repayment terms or whether the chief minister has approved the proposed mechanism.
Basheer also called on authorities, including Kochi Corporation, to complete the acquisition of land required for critical local bottlenecks. He specifically referred to the need to acquire three cents at Pachalam junction for a proposed development. The minister said the government would implement the project swiftly once the land was handed over.
The announcements indicate that the state is treating Kochi’s infrastructure delays as a combination of departmental capacity, land compensation and local coordination problems. The immediate milestones are the government order to fill the three Ernakulam PWD posts, a decision on the proposed dedicated revenue wing and completion of the pending land acquisition at Pachalam junction.
