In a bid to enhance the tourism potential of Malabar, the UDF government has come to a decision to explore the tourism potential of the state, said tourism minister, K V Thomas. In lieu of the development, the first priority would be to revive the ambitious ’Dream city project in Kozhikode’.

K V Thomas

In this regard, discussions have been held with the district collector, T O Suraj, and Mayor, Thottathil Raveendran. The revenue department has assured that it would hand over the 22-acre land for the project site to the state government. Besides, steps would also be taken to acquire a major portion of the land belonging to the Water Resources Department. In order to take a final decision on the project, a high-level meeting of the water resources minister, T M Jacob, chief secretary, N Chandrashekharan Nair and MPs and MLAs from Kozhikode district would be held in the capital on June 4.

“Global tenders would be invited after the Tourist Resort Kerala Limited (TRKL) prepared a blue print of the multi-crore project. ICICI-Kinfra had been selected as consultants for the mega project. Three parties have already evinced keen interest in setting up an amusement park. The project involves the creation of a nature park on the 140-acre land adjacent to Canolly canal. There would be two components in the park: a conservation component of a wetland ecosystem and a recreation component of facilities like amusement and culture park and a food village,” explained Thomas.

The project site falls between the Vengari and Kottooly villages on the outer limits of the Kozhikode Corporation and lies east of the National Highway 17 Mini Bypass towards Eranhipalam.

Thomas further disclosed that, “Proposals had also been envisaged to beautify the beach road in Kozhikode at a total cost of Rs 3 crore. Of this, one crore had already been allotted to the first phase of construction. The Public Works Department (PWD) would undertake the construction activities. Likewise, the tourism department was actively considering the one crore SM Street Heritage Project. The proposals included setting up of arches at the entrance, renovating pedestrian lanes and installing heritage lighting. The Kozhikode Corporation and District Tourism Promotion Council would tackle the project. Even underground parking facilities similar to the one provided in Kochi would be considered for Kozhikode. Two acres of land has already been identified for this purpose near the Mananchira Square. The estimated cost of the project is estimated to be Rs 50 lakh. Subsequently, the tourism department has drawn up a proposal to organise a Malabar Travel Mart (MTM) in Kozhikode in August.”