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No undue compromises for SmartCity, says VS

Photo: Vipinchandran

Development agenda: Chief Minister V.S. Achuthanandan inaugurating the stone-laying function of the second phase of Infopark Kochi on Saturday. —

KOCHI: Sending out a firm signal that the State government will not make any undue compromises to get the SmartCity Kochi project off the ground, Chief Minister V.S. Achuthanandan said here on Saturday that the promoters of the project would not be handed over even “an inch of land” which they could sell by right.

Mr. Achuthanandan said that for his government which was going ahead with developing infrastructure for the information technology industry on more than 1,000 acres (1 acre = 0.4 hectare) of land, doing the same on 246 more acres at Kakkanad, the land reserved for SmartCity Kochi, was not a difficult task.

The Chief Minister was delivering the inaugural address at a function held to lay the foundations for the second-phase development of Infopark Kochi. Admitting that the SmartCity Kochi project had not progressed as planned, the Chief Minister said his government had revived the project by making amends to the provisions in the agreement entered into by the previous government by compromising the interests of the State.

Mr. Achuthanandan said the insistence of SmartCity for concessions that went against the basis tenets of the agreement reworked by the present government to safeguard the interests of the State had led to the stalemate. The State government had conveyed its determined stand beyond any doubt to the promoters that no land would be handed over to them with the selling rights.

“If this was not agreeable to the promoters, alternative ways would have to be considered for the implementation of the project,” Mr. Achuthanandan said. A major IT park would be set up on the SmartCity Kochi project site without compromising the interests of the State.

Elsewhere, Finance Minister T.M. Thomas Isaac said that prima facie it did appear that the promoters of the SmartCity Kochi project were facing financial problems.

Dr. Isaac pointed out that their demand for freehold rights (over 12 per cent land) before the completion of the master plan, when the agreement stated that it was the other way around, indicated the intention to use that land as an instrument for cash mobilisation.

Hence, he said, the Chief Minister’s observation that SmartCity was in a financial crisis is right.

Besides, Dr. Isaac said, the financial crisis faced by the State-owned Dubai World will have a ripple effect on all Gulf-based companies.

Earlier, Mr. Achuthanandan told presspersons that the government was studying the crisis faced by Dubai World and its effect on the SmartCity Kochi project.

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