Thiruvananthapuram, Thursday 21 January 2009: The Cabinet has decided to hand over 235.55 acres of government land in Palakkad to Railways for building the proposed coach factory. Besides, 99 acres will be acquired on a fast track basis.

Replying to questions from the media at the weekly Cabinet briefing, Chief Minister V.S. Achuthanandan said steps would be taken to delist 93 acres of forest land vested in the government as ecologically fragile.
The transfer of the land to Railways would be made immediately. The Railway Ministry had been requested to make sufficient allocation for the factory in the Railway Budget.

About 400 acres more of land would be acquired in Malappuram district for the campus of Aligarh Muslim University under the fast track scheme. The Cabinet had approved the price fixed for the land by the high-power committee concerned.

The Chief Minister said the Cabinet had approved creation of posts of 99 personnel to man the boats of coastal police stations.

Further, it had decided to create 101 posts in the Kerala Public Service Commission to improve the functioning of the commission and speed up appointments.