Many property owners in Kochi are stuck in a frustrating limbo, eagerly waiting for their land to be officially reclassified as ‘dry land’ (purayidam). The backlog is immense, with nearly 16,000 applications still pending in Kanayannur taluk, an area encompassing the heart of Kochi’s urban landscape, and many are caught up at various stages of this drawn-out process.
As of mid-September, the Revenue department reported receiving a staggering 29,687 applications from landowners in the taluk. While about 14,000 have been successfully processed, the sheer volume means that applications submitted since January of this year haven’t even begun to move through the system yet.
Kanayannur taluk is a significant administrative region, covering vital local bodies like the Kochi Corporation, along with the municipalities of Thrikkakara, Thripunithura, and Kalamassery, and several surrounding village councils. Responsibility for these land conversion requests falls to the Deputy Collector (Revenue Recovery). Although the Fort Kochi Sub-Collector originally oversaw all such applications in the district, the workload was intelligently split last year among three deputy collectors and the Muvattupuzha Revenue Divisional Officer (RDO) in an effort to accelerate the process.
According to officials, the taluk’s urban characteristics, marked by numerous small land parcels—many of which are on reclaimed land—are the main drivers behind this high influx of applications. An official from the Revenue department highlighted, ‘Roughly 85% of these applications pertain to landholdings smaller than 25 cents. The urgent need for land conversion is understandable, as owners can only fully utilize their property for residential, commercial, or industrial purposes, or even secure bank loans, once their land is officially recognized as ‘dry land’ in the records.’
Officials further explained that the pending applications range from those simply awaiting reports from local village officers to others needing additional documents, such as detailed land sketches. In some complex situations, on-site inspections are necessary for verification. There are also cases where authorities must consult satellite imagery and reports from the Kerala State Remote Sensing and Environment Centre to accurately confirm the land’s classification.
Deputy Collector (Revenue Recovery) V. E. Abbas, who is specifically in charge of Kanayannur taluk’s land conversion cases, admitted that the overwhelming number of applications is indeed the primary reason for the delays. He assured, ‘We are diligently working through as many applications as possible each day, and our teams have been given strict deadlines to expedite their processing.’