KOCHI: The Kochi Metro Rail Ltd (KMRL) has approached the agriculture department with a proposal to start vegetable cultivation on 17 acres of land at Kakkanad, where the proposed Bliss city project is coming up.
The agriculture department has accepted the proposal and asked KMRL to do preparatory works like pruning of trees, cleaning wells, fencing and removing weeds.
The land at Kakkanad has been remaining unutilized for quite some time.
“According to the horticulture department, the land is good for farming and even organic vegetables can be grown there. We are actually involving Kudumbashree and others to cultivate vegetables till construction and other activities for the Bliss City project are approved, for which it will take a year or two. By the time, it (vegetable cultivation) will be an income for KMRL, Kudumbashree workers and others,” said KMRL MD Loknath Behera.
“For sunlight infiltration, pruning of trees has to be done. Besides well renovation, installing motor pump sets and pipes for irrigation purposes, fencing, clearing weeds and grass and land preparation are the works which KMRL should do. The vegetable cultivation will be done with the support of the horticulture mission,” said a senior agriculture official in Ernakulam.
“KMRL has already invited tender to clear weeds in the land. As part of women empowerment, Kudumbashree will be entrusted with the task of cultivating vegetables in the area,” said Sindhu N Panicker, joint director of state horticulture mission.
Thrikkakara municipality development committee has also discussed the possibility of cultivating vegetables on the land.
“The giant African snail menace is high in the area due to bushes and weeds. The committee has also decided to give a proposal to the agriculture directorate to cultivate vegetables in the unutilized land in the area,” said municipality chairman Ibrahim Kutty.
