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Kochi: The war of words over the proposed SmartCity Kochi project doesn’t seem to end. On a day when the SmartCity CEO said that the freehold land isn’t charity but a right as per the agreement, the CM said the government has nothing more to do with the project.

The first salvo came from Fareed Abdul Rahman, SmartCity CEO who said the Kerala Government doesn’t have the authority to issue deadlines on the SmartCity project. Tecom, the promoters of the project has asked the government to first fulfil its responsibility by meeting the conditions in the agreement. If that is met, they are ready to go ahead with the construction as stipulated in the agreement. In the release, the CEO also wonders why it took two years for the government to send a letter and asks the government to resolve many issues that are still unsolved.

Later in the day, Chief Minister Shri V S Achuthanandan responded to the statement by saying, “They can say anything. Do you know they had said that they would create 90,000 jobs in the project and till now they have not even placed a stone in the land!” he had earlier made it clear that the prospects of the IT industry in Kerala was not dependent on the SmartCity project.

This tug of war comes at a time when a crucial board meeting of the SmartCity Kochi is scheduled for March 29, 2010. Tecom signed the agreement with the Kerala Government in 2007 to build the SmartCity in Kochi.

Anil Philip
Kerala IT News