Thiruvananthapuram: After a long drawn legal battle, following a directive from the Supreme Court, on Thursday the demolition process of a plush Rs 200 crore resort on the Vembanad lake near Alappuzha began under the watchful eyes of the Alappuzha district authorities.
The resorts, situated on an island in the backwaters of the Vembanad lake comprising 54 posh villas, were built in 2007-2012.
A series of cases for violating the Coastal Regulation Zone (CRZ) rules were filed even as the construction was going on. Initially, the Kerala High Court ruled against the resort and the defenders then approached the apex court, which also ruled against the resort.
The project is spread over seven hectares and falls under the Panavally village panchayat.
The nail in the coffin of this beautifully completed resort came just before it was to open in 2013 and Prince Charles and his entourage, who then were travelling in Kerala, was booked at this resort. But by then it got entangled in cases and failed to open and Charles could never stay there.
The district tahisldar on Thursday told the media that the day will see two villas being knocked down.
"The debris will have to be disposed of according to the set protocols by the resort management and they are free to take whatever they need to take from the demolished resorts. All this will be done at their expenses only. A time frame of six months has been given to them to finish the demolition and dispose of the debris," said the top revenue official.
This project was a joint venture between Kapico Resorts Pvt. Ltd, a leading business house of Kerala, and a Kuwaiti investor.
The Supreme Court of India pronounced its final verdict ordering the demolition of the buildings on January 10, 2020. The district administration had started steps to demolish them, but the process got delayed because of Covid-19.
Kapico Kerala Resorts (Private) Limited built the 17,000-sq-ft main building and the 54 350-sq-ft villas in 17.34 acres of land in the middle of Vembanad Lake. The building materials were brought from the mainland on ferries.
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