The twin towers of the Chander Kunj Army Apartment Complex at Vyttila in Kochi.
| Photo Credit: THULASI KAKKAT
The handing over of 208 apartments in towers ‘B’ and ‘C’ of the Chander Kunj Army Apartment Complex at Silver Sand Island, Vyttila, Kochi, to the Army Welfare Housing Organisation (AWHO) for demolition will begin on Monday (October 5, 2026) and is expected to be completed within a fortnight.
The Kanayannur tahsildar will monitor the handover process. This was among the key decisions taken at a meeting of the District Collector’s committee constituted to oversee the demolition and reconstruction of the apartments. The meeting was the first to be held since the Kerala High Court last month dismissed a petition by P.K. Unique Projects Limited, a Tamil Nadu-based company, challenging the committee’s decision to award the demolition contract to Mumbai-based Edifice Engineering.
“With the dismissal of the petition, decks have been cleared to expedite the demolition process. Handing over the apartments is a critical step in this regard,” committee sources said. The towers are likely to be demolished within four months.
The Chander Kunj Army Towers Apartment Owners Association (CATAOA) will begin issuing notices to apartment owners, asking them to hand over their apartments either directly or through authorised proxies. Owners’ representatives strongly objected to the AWHO’s demand that the apartments be handed over to the tahsildar, fearing that the organisation could later shirk responsibility after the demolition. They insisted that the AWHO should remain accountable for handing back the reconstructed apartments.
“The sub-committee chaired by the Fort Kochi Revenue Divisional Officer [RDO] will finalise the draft demolition agreement next week after assessing the habitability of Tower ‘A.’ This will be followed by the signing of the demolition contract between the RDO and Edifice Engineering. Initially, the AWHO was to be a signatory to the demolition contract before it backed out. Subsequently, the District Collector gave it the option of depositing the full demolition cost [₹9.60 crore, plus GST] in advance into the Collector’s escrow account, which the AWHO has since complied with,” said Saji Thomas, president of CATAOA.
The sub-committee will also review and finalise the Request for Proposal to be issued for the appointment of the project management consultant.
The Collector’s committee has also, in principle, decided to approach the Supreme Court seeking a direction to the AWHO to pay rent to 24 owners who have not received even a single month’s rent so far. The remaining owners have received one year’s rent to date. The committee further resolved that owners would be eligible for revised rent from the AWHO in accordance with the rental agreement, which is usually revised annually.
Edifice Engineering and its authorised vendors will begin visiting the apartments from Saturday for preliminary studies ahead of the actual demolition. Following a two-day pre-demolition inspection in June, Edifice Engineering had said that while the twin towers could be brought down sequentially within seconds, preparations for the demolition and the subsequent debris clearance could take longer.
Published – October 02, 2026 07:00 am IST
