Palakkad, Saturday, January 23, 2010: The two hundred and fourty five acres of land acquired for Kanjikode coach factory by government would be handed over to Railways on Monday, informed KP Rajendran, Minister for Revenue.

Speaking to media after visiting the proposed site Minister said, land for proposed Aligarh Muslim University would be given next week and the government has speeded up land acquirement for Vizhinjam port project, Minister informed.

The coach factory was allotted to Palakkad in lieu of the bifurcation of the Palakkad Railway Division.

A major portion of the Palakkad Railway Division was weaned away to form the Salem Division at the behest of PMK leader Velu who is the Minister of State for Railways in the UPA Government.

The Kerala Government on the other hand had promised to hand over 1000 acres (since scaled down to 900 acres by the Railway board) for the coach factory in Kanjikode.

The factory will bring an investment of nearly Rs. 2,000 crore in the first phase and another Rs. 4,000 crore in the second phase. It will provide employment to 3,000 people directly and more than 10,000 people indirectly.

It will also bring more than 100 medium level industries to make the 1,000 components to make a rail coach, the sources said.