3-member panel to sort out Kochi SmartCity issues

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: With the government hardening its stand on the delay in SmartCity Kochi project, the director board of SmartCity Kochi that met here on Thursday decided to constitute a three-member committee to sort out 22 issues being cited by TECOM  for delaying the closing date of the framework agreement. According to sources,  many of the  reasons  were minor.   As per the framework agreement, the commitments of TECOM on the creation of 90,000 jobs and construction of 8.8 million square feet built up space need to be fulfilled within ten years of the closing date.

Hence,  delaying the closing date may hit  the fulfilment of the commitments of TECOM under the agreement. The three-member committee comprising one representative each from the state government, TECOM and SmartCity Kochi will identify the solutions for all  the 22 issues before the next board meeting. It is learnt that the government was trying to fix the date on which the SEZ notification was received as the closing date.  The notification was received in 2013, said sources.

SmartCity Kochi officials also informed at the meeting that all the 23 firms that have already acquired space in the 6.5-lakh square feet facility have agreed to start operations this year. Meanwhile, SmartCity Kochi vice-chairman Jaber Bin Hafez said that the delay in completing the formalities in a project involving two governments was quite natural. But it would not delay commissioning of the project, he said. IT secretary M. Sivasankar and NRK businessman  M.A. Yousuf Ali were among those who attended the meeting.