The authorities of the Overseas Keralites Investment and Holding Limited (OKIHL) have denied the allegations raised by Congress leader Ramesh Chennithala that provision of prime land in cities by the government to private individuals for the Rest Stop project could pave the way for corruption.
The project, which is being handled by the OKIHL, aims to set up wayside amenity centres across State for travellers. The OKIHL authorities said in a release that the allegations raised by Mr. Chennithala were baseless and fictional, as the ownership of the land would not be handed over to private individuals. It would be vested with the government itself.
The OKIHL was constituted as per the recommendation of Loka Kerala Sabha to facilitate the rapid transformation of the State by utilising the skills and savings of non-resident Keralites (NRKs) and returned NRKs.
The body had identified four strategic verticals for development of which the first was the development of wayside amenity centres of international standards along national and State highways of Kerala, the OKIHL authorities said.
Each RestStop centre would be developed on around 5 acres of land abutting highways with about 50,000 sq. ft retail area that would include a food court, restaurants, caravan parking, workshops, fuel stations, ATM, medical clinic, spa-cum-saloon, and toilets. The functioning of the completed project would be managed by the Rest Stop Private limited under the OKIHL.
The project also aimed at providing job opportunities to local people while providing modern amenities to home and international tourists.
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