Smart City set to take off, finally

The Kerala government has finally ended the four-and-a-half-year long stalemate over the mega IT infrastructure project, Smart City, Kochi.

A meeting between chief minister VS Achuthanandan and a high-level delegation of the UAE government has solved all the pending issues and decided to go on with the project. The chief minister and the delegation have formally signed and exchanged an agreement in this regard.

The UAE delegation, led by Cabinet minister and Dubai Holding chairman Muhammed Bin Abdlla Al Gargavi,   included Ahmed Humair Al Thayar, Governor, Dubai International  Financial Centre,  Abdul Lathief Al Mulla, Tecom group CEO, and Adnan Shilvan, financial adviser.

Addressing a press conference after the meeting in the state capital on Wednesday, the chief minister said all the issues had been sorted out and the construction on the project would commence within the shortest possible time.

Tecom, the UAE-based promoter of the project, has agreed to drop its demand for 12 per cent  freehold land in the project site with a right to sell it.

According to the framework agreement of the Rs 1,800-crore project, the government has agreed to provide 12 per cent  (29.5 acres) of the total land area of the project as freehold to construct various basic amenities other than IT and IT-enabled Services. his land will be in the site, which is notified as a special economic zone.

Tecom drops demand Three years ago, Tecom had demanded that the land be outside the notified SEZ and the company should get the right to sell it. The stalemate over the project started from there and several rounds of discussions between the government and Tecom remained futile. The government feared that the company could use the freehold land outside the SEZ and that too with a right to sell, for real estate business.

The foundation stone for the project was laid on November 16, 2007, but it had been on hold since then.

The government had identified 246 acres of land in Kakkanad near Kochi for the project. Of this, 133 acres has already got SEZ status. The remaining 113 acres has to get SEZ status as the plot has a river flowing in the middle.

Around four months ago, the government appointed MA Yousuf Ali, a UAE-based businessman, who is also vice chairman of Norka, nodal agency for NRK welfare, and a director of Abu Dhabi Chamber of Commerce,   as mediator to settle the issues.

The title deed for the land is likely to be registered in a month and the government would approach the commerce ministry for SEZ status for the remaining 113 acres. It would give concessions in the land registration fee and stamp duty. Construction work on the project site is likely to commence within three months.

The project, which was originally  mooted during the last  UDF regime, envisages job opportunities for 90,000 IT professionals when fully operational.