Fresh efforts to operationalise the long-pending coconut park at Manimala near Velam in Kuttiyadi have rekindled hopes among hundreds of farmers in the upland areas of Kozhikode district, with Industries Minister P.K. Kunhalikutty assuring the Assembly that necessary steps would be taken to speed up the project.

The issue was raised recently by Parakkal Abdulla, MLA, through a submission in the Assembly, where he sought the early commissioning of the park, which is expected to generate value-added business opportunities for hundreds of coconut growers and strengthen the market presence of Kuttiyadi coconut.

The project, conceived during the tenure of the Oommen Chandy government, is being implemented under the aegis of the Kerala State Industrial Development Corporation. Spread across 115 acres at Velam, the proposed coconut-based industrial park has witnessed prolonged delays, with a large part of the site remaining overgrown and underutilised.

Documents were tabled in the Assembly on earlier occasions, and preliminary development works have already been undertaken at the site. Tree-felling operations in a five-acre area have been completed, while valuation procedures have been initiated for clearing additional land required for the project.

Infrastructure works worth ₹73.61 lakh, including the construction of a compound wall, entrance gate, and other facilities, have been completed. A 160 KV transformer has also been installed following the required clearances from the Rubber Board and the Social Forest department.

In addition, infrastructure, road and land development works costing around ₹1 crore were executed under the supervision of the Uralungal Labour Contract Cooperative Society. The project, according to the district panchayat authorities, aims to facilitate the production and marketing of value-added products derived from high-quality Kuttiyadi coconuts. Stakeholders believe that its commissioning can open up new commercial avenues for traditional and modern coconut farmers and accelerate the growth of coconut-based small and medium industries.

Welcoming the Minister’s assurance, functionaries of various upland farmers’ organisations, including We Farm and Indian Farmers’ Movement, said the project had been a long-pending demand of the farmers’ community and expressed hope that it would be commissioned without further delay. P. Sukumaran, a functionary of the Kozhikode-based Coconut Development Committee also welcomed the assurance, saying that the intervention in the Assembly had revived hopes among several disheartened coconut farmers in the rural areas of Kozhikode and nearby districts.