THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin has promised that his government will take steps to improve the infrastructure and consider favourable policy intervention to boost trade and commerce between the Capital City Region of Kerala and southern districts of his state, mainly Kanyakumari and Tirunelveli. He was speaking with office-bearers of Trivandrum Chamber of Commerce and Industry (TCCI) who met him at his office in Chennai on Monday.
“We have requested the Government of Tamil Nadu to create an industrial corridor connecting Tirunelveli and Kanyakumari with Thiruvananthapuram, with special emphasis on agro, marine, green energy-based industries and MSME sector. A corridor will spur economic activity in the region and create thousands of new jobs for the youth on either side of the border.
The TCCI has offered to coordinate various constituents of the industry,” said chamber president S N Raghuchandran Nair. “The TN chief minister promised to intervene to make sure that the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) does not foreclose the two projects of four-laning of the stretch linking Kerala-Tamil Nadu border to Kanyakumari for any reason. We also stressed upon the need for a road bypassing the bottleneck at Nagercoil,” he added.
There were reports that NHAI has listed the projects which it plans to foreclose, which included two projects of four-laning of the stretch from Tamil Nadu-Kerala border to Kanyakumari. “He has also agreed to look into launching a project to revive Anantha-Victoria-Marthandam (AVM) canal and make it navigable to ease transportation of goods via waterways and also to promote tourism,” he added.
The AVM canal was conceived as a water link between Thiruvananthapuram and Kanyakumari in the late 1800s, but has not been in use for long. “We have requested (him) that a centralised collection point and warehouse for vegetables be set up at Kaliyikkavila. This will help Tamil Nadu farmers supply produce directly at the points. For traders in Kerala, this will reduce the hassles of transportation from Theni and different parts of Tamil Nadu. We hope this helps reduce prices,” said TCCI secretary Abraham Thomas.
The chamber also mooted a special economic zone (SEZ) for jewellery making and export in Nanguneri near Tirunelveli. Besides Raghuchandran Nair and Abraham Thomas, chamber vice-president B Govindan, its Tamil Nadu coordinator Vishnu Sachiv, prominent industrialist E Lakshmanan and additional chief secretary for Industries to Tamil Nadu Government S Krishnan attended the meeting.