SmartCity board to meet on June 28

Amidst continuing stalemate over the implementation of the proposed SmartCity Kochi project, yet another meeting of the board of directors of the company would be held here on June 28.

Unlike the initial board meetings which evoked much interest triggering hopes of the project taking off, the ones held in the recent past had been just to fulfill the mandatory formalities.

The issue of right to freehold over 12 per cent land to SmartCity, the Dubai-based promoters and the resultant stalemate over the registration of the land and Special Economic Zone notification had been keeping the project in a limbo for a long time now.

In between, arguments and ultimatums flew thick and fast between the stakeholders SmartCity and the governemnt dousing the hopes of the project materializing.

Meanwhile, the government, it is learnt, was working on a draft of an intimation to be sent to the promoters asking them to start the project without any further delay.

A discussion on the issue chaired by the Chief Secretary would be held at Thiruvananthapuram on Tuesday, sources said.

Fareed Abdulrahman, the Chief Executive Officer of SmartCity, has pointed out the board meetings were being wrapped up without any significant decisions being taken.

After the last board meeting held on March 29 at which the outstanding issues plaguing the project were not discussed, Minister S. Sarma, who is also the chairman of the SmartCity Kochi, had told waiting media persons that the board meeting was not the platform for discussing such issues as they need to be discussed at the government level as they related to an agreement reached between the government and SmartCity. He said that he was a mere board member like the rest of those on the board and was not authorised to take any decision on behalf of the government.

‘Futile'

Emphasising the futility inherent in the board meetings as things stand now, Mr. Abdulrahman had as recently as June 2 lamented the absence of an empowered representative of the State government at such meetings.