Thiruvananthapuram: The Finance Minister, Thomas Issac, has allocated Rs. 20,000 crore for the Kerala Infrastructure Investment Fund Board (KIIFB) in the Budget.
The KIIFB has given permission for spending Rs. 14,275 crore to appropriate land for industrial park and Rs. 5324 to take land for national highway construction. The KIIFB approved projects amount to Rs. 54678 crore and around Rs. 13617 crore of tender is called. Rs. 4500 crore worth of project construction has been completed.
The Budget speech also witnessed the announcement of the Semi-high speed railway project connecting Kasargod to Thiruvananthapuram. The project could bring down the time of journey from the northern tip of Kerala to the southern tip to just 4 hours. Currently, the time needed is 12 hours.
The length of the rail line will be 540 km. This would be a joint venture by the Kerala government with the Ministry of Railways and would help the transportation problems in the state.
The Finance Minister has earmarked Rs. 90 crore for the welfare of the Kerala Diaspora. In addition to that Rs. 12 crore is allocated to Loka Kerala Sabha. The chit funds for the NRIs will begin functioning from this fiscal. A Rs. 3 crore will be spend for legal cell for the NRIs.
