Govt grants SEZ status to entire Smart City area

The Union commerce ministry today granted the status of a special economic zone (SEZ) to 114-acre site of the proposed Smart City project in Kochi. With this, the SEZ status has now been accorded to the total area of 246 acres of the proejct.

Earlier, in March this year, the government had sactioned SEZ status only to 132 acres as the total project area is divided into two by a river in the middle.

The latest move is expected to lead to a smooth sailing of the Rs 2,000-crore mega IT infrastructure project. Samrt City Kochi managing director Baju George said that the decision was very positive for the progress of the proejct.

Meanwhile, the work on the Pavilion of SmartCity, which would showcase project's various features, will begin on September 29. The pavilion would also have the offices for the administrative and project management team of the project.

"As per our project plan, the work on the headquarters building will commence of November 19 and the rest of the work would be implemented in a timebound manner," said Abdul Latheef Al Mulla, vice chairman, SmartCity, and group CEO, Tecom Dubai. The decision was taken by the project monitoring committee meeting of Smart City Kochi in Dubai in last month.

Considering the importance of the project and the need for speedy decisions, the committee also decided to induct Kerala chief minister Oommen Chandy as a Special Invitee to the SmartCity Kochi board of directors. Kerala ports and excise minister K Babu and Dubai-based NRI businessman MA Yusufali have also been made special invitees.

The project monitoring committee meeting was chaired by Ahmed Humaid Al Tayer, member of the Supreme Fiscal Committee of Dubai government, and was attended by Abdul Latheef Al Mulla, Dubai Islamic Bank deputy CEO Adnan Chilwan, Emirates NBD CEO Suresh Kumar, Norka Roots vice chairman MA Yusuffali and SmartCity managing director Baju George.

The meeting, which reviewed the progress so far on the project, set a timeline for the first year's activities and allotted the required funds.

The project is now expected to cost Rs 2,000 crore, about Rs 500 crore more than what was previously projected. The project’s initial investment was estimated at UAE Dirham 1.2 billion (about Rs 1,500 crore) to be spent on building the infrastructure. This has now been revised to Dh 1.6 billion (Rs 2,000 crore). The project which was given a ten-year deadline has now been cut to five-and-a-half years.

According to Baju George, the project would have a built-up area of 8.8 million sft with about 20 - 25 buildings. The Kerala government has a 16 percent stake in the project.

Tecom’s Dubai Internet City will focus on marketing while SmartCity will host the facilities of multinational and international technology companies. The project is expected to create about 25,000 direct jobs in its first three to four years, and a total of 90,000 jobs are expected when the project is completed.

George said the initial feedback from potential IT firms, which were approached through Dubai Internet City, about setting up facilities in SmartCity Kochi was very positive.