Six years on, Pala’s Green Tourism dream remains on paper
A multi-crore Green Tourism complex in Pala, inaugurated in 2020, remains abandoned and unused due to bureaucratic delays and ownership disputes. Local authorities are currently seeking to resolve land sanction issues to revive the facility.
Why it matters
The project serves as an example of administrative inefficiency and the waste of public funds in infrastructure development.
A tourism project billed as the gateway to a circuit spanning the high ranges of Kottayam and Idukki is still in limbo, nearly six years after its inauguration. Inaugurated by the then Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan in October 2020, the Green Tourism complex on the banks of the Meenachil was envisaged as the hub of a wider tourism circuit connecting Pala with destinations such as Vagamon, Ilaveezhapoonchira, Illikkal Kallu and Marmala. The circuit was also to cover pilgrimage centres including Bharananganam, Ramapuram, Aruvithura and the Naalambalam circuit
The complex comprises a glass-roofed structure modelled on the Louvre Museum in Paris and an iron bridge inspired by London Bridge. It also has an amenity centre, park, walkway, seating areas and a viewpoint overlooking the confluence of the Meenachil and Lalam streams.
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