Concerted efforts
to secure SEZ status for SmartCity
KOCHI: The State government and SmartCity Kochi would
make concerted efforts to secure a single Special Economic
Zone (SEZ) status covering the entire area of the proposed
SmartCity project here.
This was one of the three major decisions taken at
a meeting of the board of directors of SmartCity Kochi
held here on Thursday.
Briefing reporters after the meeting, Fisheries Minister
S. Sarma, who is also chairman of SmartCity Kochi, said
the State government and SmartCity would jointly approach
the Central government seeking a single SEZ status for
the entire 246 acres of land of the project after evaluating
its possibility.
Or else, the SEZ status already received for 136 acres
will be retained and a separate application would be
made for the remaining 100 acres, he said.
Another major decision was to appoint a project management
consultancy to coordinate the master plans, the overall
master plan and the one being drawn up for infrastructure
development. The United States-based Hill International
has been shortlisted as consultant for this purpose,
Mr. Sarma said.
Lease agreement
Another decision was to sign a lease agreement for
11.5 acres, which was left out of the agreement signed
last November, within a week. This portion was exempted
then since the inhabitants were yet to move out.
Talking on the sidelines of the meeting Fareed Abdulrahman,
Chief Executive Officer, SmartCity, said that SmartCity
Malta would have a positive influence on the project
in Kochi.
He differed with comments that the progress of SmartCity
Kochi was tardy compared to the similar project in Malta,
the first phase of which was launched last month.
SmartCity Kochi is four times the size of SmartCity
Malta and hence would take that much more time, he said.
Ajay Kumar, secretary, State Information Technology;
Anirudh Danke, board member; Jin Wan Choi, Director
(strategies), SmartCity; Sulaiman Al-Riyami, manager,
strategies and marketing, SmartCity; and Mithun Beeru,
business development manager, SmartCity Kochi; attended
the meeting.
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