SmartCity Kochi Chief Executive Officer Manoj Nair has scotched ‘rumours’ that SmartCity Dubai has been shut down, and that it may have a bearing on the fate of its Kochi project.
Speaking to The Hindu here on Friday, Mr. Nair said: “SmartCity Dubai is very much in existence and remains the holding company for SmartCity ventures around the world. We have just taken the decision making layers for greater efficiency and to expedite things. That is the principle of operations in Dubai,” he said.
The current focus is only on two cities – Malta and Kochi – while the rest were discussions that had just started but stalled for some reasons. Kochi is a great opportunity, and the story is on, Mr. Nair said. SmartCity Dubai is now being managed by the real estate department of Dubai Holding, which has gone for a flat organisational structure simply because they felt decision making had to be fast, and that it should be in the interest of individual projects.
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Earlier, SmartCity ventures were under Tecom, another subsidiary of Dubai Holding. Mr. Nair said that he reported directly to Khalid Al Malik, the Chief Real Estate Officer at Dubai Holding, and that the new arrangement had lent him considerable operational authority, sparing him consultations with Dubai at every turn.