Railways land may turn into homes for needy

KOCHI: The Kochi Corporation has proposed a plan to takeover more than an acre of unused land, belonging to the Indian Railways, near Kammattippadam in Gandhi Nagar.The proposal was made as a result of the Corporation council’s plan to utilize the land to provide homes for the needy.“The land was earlier used for the metre gauge track to Kottayam and is over 700 meters long. The land is currently lying unused. If it is not used properly, there are chances that the land be encroached by nomads,” said K J Jacob, councillor (Gandhi Nagar), Kochi Corporation.“Instead, the land can be used for constructing 320 square feet houses under the Rajiv Awas Yojana (RAY). There is enough area to construct around 350 houses. These can later be given at just 10 per cent of the construction cost to the homeless. This will not only prevent the land from being encroached but will also prevent the creation of slum-like dwellings in the other parts of the city,” he added.However, railway officials at Ernakulam said that the decision needs to be taken at Thiruvananthapuram and hence, it will take some time. “Since, the issue deals with transferring Central government land to a local government body, there has to be a change in the policy. The proposal has to be checked and cleared by the Thiruvananthapuram office for the plan to take off,” said George John, Railway area manager, Ernakulam.