Food courts at Mayor Bhavan in Kozhikode to get a new lease of life

Corporation council approves proposal to hand over six of nine food courts to beneficiaries at a nominal price of ₹40,000

The state-of-the-art food courts that are gathering rust in the backyard of Mayor Bhavan in Kozhikode may soon have another lease of life.

The Kozhikode Corporation council has approved the proposal to hand over six of the nine food courts at the Mayor Bhavan to beneficiaries at a nominal price of ₹40,000.

The Mayor Bhavan compound has turned into a sort of ‘official dumpyard’ for the Kozhikode Corporation, where everything unnecessary is deposited either temporarily or permanently. Thus, among the items that gather rust in the compound include several vehicles and even designer lamp posts that were supposed to beautify the beach and Mananchira square.

The decision regarding the food court comes with financial loss for the Corporation. However, the food courts, at least some of them, are being saved from being wasted.

Fifteen state-of-the-art food courts were bought by the Kozhikode Corporation Kudumbashree wing in 2013 from Metal Industries Ltd., under the Kerala Sustainable Urban Development Programme (KSUDP) that was scrapped later. Of them, six were handed over to the beneficiaries in several stages and the remaining nine have been dumped at the Mayor Bhavan premises since then.

Attempts were made to auction them off twice, but failed. Hence, offers were invited from listed beneficiaries once again and six of them agreed at ₹40,000 per bunk. The Corporation is expected to get ₹2.4 lakh in this regard.

Meanwhile, the Corporation is yet to pay the price of the nine food courts to Metal Industries Ltd., and the company has demanded ₹10.2 lakh several times. The Corporation has requested the State government for permission to source ₹5.25 lakh (excluding the offer price and subsidy) from the funds remaining in the KSUDP's account.