Smartcity Kochi: Fresh land deed soon, informs Kerala CM

Chief Minister VS Achuthanandan today informed Assembly that, steps would be taken to sign a fresh land deed document with Tecom authorities soon. Chief Minister also informed that, 132 acres of land which was set aside for the project has been grated SEZ status.

The project, which is hanging in limbo for some time now is expected to gain momentum after the representatives of Tecom, the promoters of the proposed Smart City project in Kochi will reach here on 9 September for comprehensive discussions with state government.
A team led by Fareed Abdulrahman, Executive Director of TECOM will hold discussions with Chief Secretary regarding the implementation of the project.

The issue of ‘freehold right’ cropped up when the Dubai-based Tecom Investments insisted that the company wanted a free hold right on the 12 percent of total land.

The proposed project, to be jointly launched by the state government and infrastructure major Smart City, is slated to come up on a 246-acre plot with 8.8 million square feet of built-up space, of which 70 percent is earmarked for IT and IT-enabled services.

The foundation stone of the project was laid Nov 16, 2007 by Achuthanandan and since then, barring a few board meetings, there has been no movement in the project.

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