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SmartCity Kochi moves at snail's pace, CM briefed about progress

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Kochi: The much hyped about work on the SmartCity Kochi project seems to be on a very slow track and the construction of the SmartCity pavilion is well behind schedule. As per the deadline set by Tecom with the Kerala Government, the work on SmartCity Pavilion - the offices for the Administrative and Project Management team, was to be completed in four months but it’s still nowhere near completion.

Seven years after the SmartCity Kochi project was initiated and almost four years after the foundation stone was first laid, the construction work of the Rs.2,000 crore project was finally flagged off on October 08, 2011 but it has been making slow progress. In the process, the activities planned to promote the SmartCity Kochi project has also been delayed. Now the company plans to associate with the ‘Emerging Kerala’ campaign and use the event to promote the project.

In the last meeting of the Board of Directors held on March 21 in Thiruvananthapuram, Tecom, the Dubai based promoter of the SmartCity Kochi project, had made a presentation on the concept master plan of the project and had asked for more time to finalise it.

Meanwhile Dr. Baju George, Managing Director, SmartCity Kochi met Chief Minister Shri Oommen Chandy in Kochi yesterday and updated him about the progress of the work and the master plan. The revised target is to complete the work before the next Directors Board meeting scheduled for June.

The company plans to present to the Board of Approval for Special Economic Zones the concept master plan of the project which was approved in the last Board meeting. The construction can start only after their approval. It is learnt that the absence of a single SEZ notification for the entire 246 acres is being given as a reason for the delay in drafting the final master plan.

Kerala IT News

Comments (2)
1 Tuesday, 24 April 2012 21:36
David F
The Smart City project in Kochi is just an extrapolation of Dubai and its economic problems. If you watch what is going on in Dubai, a lot of hype was created around different developments which were started but stopped halfway because Dubai based companies particularly the ruler's companies couldn't pay their debts. Dubai ruler's companies are all broke. I know this because I live in Dubai. What the Kerala government needs to do is to take the project away from this stupid Dubai company and give it to a reputed Indian company. Thank God that the Info Park is not part of Smart City as it was initially planned, or that would also have been dead by now.
2 Friday, 27 April 2012 00:35
Manish
Our government has gone out of its way to acquire expensive land from the people who have owned it for many generations and given prime land to this incompetent Dubai company at throw away prices in the hopes that this company will create jobs. What TECOM has done is they seized the priced land and sat on it for so many years without making progress. The ruler and his companies are not answerable to anybody in Dubai. The newspapers cannot publish anything bad about the ruler’s family or they are closed down. They can do anything they want in Dubai and get away with it. They think they can bring their incompetent culture to our country and get away with it. They think they are not answerable to us in our land also. They have a total disregard for human rights as is evident by the way they treat foreign labourers in Dubai, and in a similar manner they don’t have a problem taking prime land from poor people and giving nothing in return to Kerala. TECOM should be sent back to Dubai and our land repossessed and given to a reputed Indian company.

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