Work on Smart city kochi to begin October 2008

The board of directors of the proposed Rs.15-billion Smart City project here in Kerala late Wednesday evening decided that the work on the project would commence in October 2008.

Addressing reporters here after the three-hour long meeting, chairman of the board and state Fisheries Minister S. Sarma said the consultancy for the preparation of the master plan would be agreed upon within the next 10 days.

Dubai Internet City (DIC) officials, who will be building city, were also present at the second full board meeting of the Smart City project after the agreement was inked last May.

'Work will begin in October. We have now got special economic zone (SEZ) status for 100 acres of the total 246 acres. We will try and get the SEZ status for remaining area also,' Sarma said.

The project was finally cleared last May, nearly three years after it was first mooted. When complete, it would have 8.8 million square feet of building, of which 70 percent would be for IT and IT-enabled services.

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