SmartCity Kochi Crucial Meeting today @ 11 a.m.

Creating an air of optimism ahead of their meeting with the Chief Secretary on ways to ensure the progress of the SmartCity project in Kochi, Tecom, the Dubai-based promoters of the project, have issued a statement reassuring their commitment to the project.

A high level delegation led by SmartCity Chief Executive Officer Fareed Abdulrahman is set to hold discussions with Chief Secretary Neela Gangadharan in Thiruvananthapuram on Wednesday. The meeting will be held at the Chief Secretary’s chamber at 11 a.m. Mr. Abdulrahman is likely to brief reporters thereafter.

The project, a joint venture of Dubai-based SmartCity and the State government, had been in a limbo ever since differences of opinion cropped up between the stakeholders over a host of issues.

The meeting is expected to come out with some solutions to set the project in motion.

To start off with, the statement issued from Dubai confirms the arrival of SmartCity officials for talks with the chief secretary.

“The meeting will focus on the pending issues causing setbacks to the development of SmartCity Kochi,” the statement said. This was a reiteration of the promoters’ stand for long that they were prepared only to discuss, what they perceived as, “pending issues.”

This included registration of the fresh lease and incorporating in it various provisions of the Framework Agreement signed between SmartCity and the State government, and acquisition of 19 cents (0.08 hectare) located at the centre of a land measuring 114 acres (46 hectares)

The most important issue, however, was regarding inclusion of a clause pertaining to 12 per cent freehold land in the fresh lease.

The State government stand on this issue, however, was that this could wait till the master plan for the project was ready.

“Once the pending issues are resolved, the planning and operational activities will be intensified to push forward with SmartCity Kochi.
SmartCity is fully committed to the project and believes in its partnership with the Government of Kerala to make it a proud reality,” the statement further added.

Chief Minister V.S. Achuthanandan says the government is hopeful of clearing the air over the SmartCity project through Wednesday’s discussion with Tecom.

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