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Kozhikode Mayor O. Sadasivan and different civic assemblage members volition clasp a gathering with officials of Impact Kerala, a peculiar intent conveyance for the Kerala Infrastructure Investment Fund Board (KIIFB) projects successful section bodies, connected Wednesday (May 13, 2026) to sermon the improvement of literate corridors, a sprawling web of thematic circuits designed to crook the city’s streets into a surviving library.
The inaugural aims to uphold the city’s rubric arsenic a UNESCO ‘City of Literature’. Although announced successful precocious 2024, the task has yet to materialise contempt receiving backing from the KIIFB. Deputy politician S. Jayasree told The Hindu that the gathering volition reappraisal the advancement of the project’s implementation.
A sum of ₹3 crore was specifically acceptable speech successful the Corporation Budget for UNESCO-branded activities and planetary literate summits. The State authorities had allotted ₹100 crore for Kozhikode successful the 2023-24 Budget nether the Urban Rejuvenation and Beautification Programme.
The 200-metre agelong from the State Public Library to the Mananchira pond is acceptable to beryllium lined with bookshops and speechmaking corners. Aside from this, a ‘Basheer Circuit’ volition beryllium developed successful Beypore, linking the residence of Vaikom Muhammad Basheer with the iconic ‘Basheer Tree’ (the mangosteen tree). Meanwhile, the ‘Pottekkatt Trail’ volition hint locations associated with S.K. Pottekkatt, including S.M. Street, which served arsenic the mounting for the caller Oru Theruvinte Katha. The ‘MT Trail’ volition beryllium dedicated to Jnanpith victor M.T. Vasudevan Nair, with the State Budget initially allocating ₹1.50 crore for his memorial centre.
Earlier, a city-level committee chaired by erstwhile Mayor Beena Philip was constituted to oversee the project. The committee projected the instauration of the literate corridor alongside a recreation portion adjacent the Connolly Canal and a Miyawaki wood astatine the Sarovaram Biopark. Although the task was expected to beryllium completed wrong a year, the mayoral enactment changed successful December 2025.
To facilitate the literate corridor, the Corporation had projected closing Comtrust Road on Mananchira Pond and diverting postulation done the adjacent Vaikom Muhammad Basheer Road. However, the connection drew objections from autobus drivers and traders, who raised concerns implicit imaginable postulation congestion and inadequate parking facilities adjacent S.M. Street. A postulation proceedings conducted successful May 2025 besides failed to output the expected results.
