Kerala for SEZ status to Vallarpadam ICTT

The Kerala cabinet today decided to raise Rs 2,500-crore for the proposed Vizhinjam International Container Transshipment Terminal project through a consortium of banks to be led by the State Bank of Travancore (SBT).

The chief minister will convene a meeting of the banks shortly. The government also decided to approach the central government with a request to grant SEZ-status to the project.

Earlier, Shipping Corporation of India (SCI) had expressed interest in the project, but because of poor follow-up actions, the state government decided to construct the project in the public sector.

Smart City issue
The cabinet also decided to have a dialogue with the UAE administration to resolve the stalemate over the Smart City Kochi project. Undecided over the reply sent by Dubai-based Tecom, the overseas partner in the Rs 1,700-crore IT infrastructure project, the government has passed the ball to the state-level committee of the Left Democratic Front (LDF) for taking a final decision. This was announced by chief minister VS Achuthanandan today at Thiruvananthapuram after the cabinet meeting.

The foundation stone for the mega project was laid by the chief minister on November 16, 2007, and 246 acres of land near Kakkanad had been earmarked for the project. The project has to be completed in stages within 10 years providing jobs to 100,000 IT pofessionals. In spite of the efforts made by the government, the Dubai company had not started construction, but raised a demand to have right to sell the 12 per cent free hold land (around 29 acres).

The government rejected the demand saying that this was not in the orginal contract signed by the two parties. There were several rounds of negotiation between the government and Tecom to reach a consensus, but the deaklock continued.

A few months ago, the government had issued an ulitmatum letter to the company that it would expell the company from the project for violating the conditions in the contract. In reply, Tecom said it would not back out from the proejct, but wanted to associate with the project. It repeatedly said that it was ready to commence the construction once the government gives a green signal to go ahead with the project. The government had not taken a decision on the letter as the state due to the local body elections last month.

The government now plans to terminate the contract with the Dubai company and develop the project as the second phase of Infropark, Kochi.