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Smart City: Chandy's efforts bear fruit
30 April 2005 - newindexpress.com
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BR>URL:http://www.newindpress.com/NewsItems.asp?ID=IER20050429112400&Page=R&Title=Kerala&Topic=0
Kerala lost a prestigious investment opportunity when telecom major Nokia
decided to set up its Rs 675-crore facility in Tamil Nadu, thanks to the
intense political lobbying by politicians from that state in Delhi.
However, the single-handed initiative by Chief Minister Oommen Chandy has
managed to get Kerala a major investment opportunity in the green sector - the
Rs 1,500-crore Smart City proposed by the Dubai Internet City which will come
up in Kochi.
According to sources, it was an ultimatum given by Chandy a week ago to top
government officials to `go and get the project at any cost' that clinched one
of the major IT initiatives in the history of the state. The project promises
employment opportunities for 33,000 directly and nearly 70,000 indirectly.
A final MoU for the project will be inked before May 15 and the preliminary
works will begin within 30 days of the signing of agreement. A consensus in
this regard was reached at the two-day discussion between top government
officials and the DIC delegation which ended in Kochi on Thursday.
The project, which demanded as many as 300 acres of land in Kochi at a cheaper
rate, evoked criticism from a section of political leaders, particularly the
CPM-led Opposition, right from the beginning.
According to them, the move would finally end up in the state losing huge area
of land without substantial return in terms of employment generation.
Adding more trouble to the smooth processing of the project proposal, the state
bureaucracy failed to prepare a draft MoU within the stipulated time frame set
by the DIC.
This website’s newspaper had reported that the MoU, which was earlier
scheduled to be signed before December 2004, was prepared only after the time
frame, that too after the direct intervention of the Chief Minister.
The other contenders for the prestigious project were Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and
Andhra Pradesh which offered a number of incentives, including free land, to
the DIC.
The DIC team first arrived in the state for a site visit on October 30, 2004,
and it was here for three more days evaluating the advantages of the site being
offered to it.
This was followed by a three-day discussion between the DIC team and top
officials during the last week of January 2005. However, the discussion could
not reach anywhere at that time mainly owing to differences over the price of
land.
Highly-placed sources told this website’s newspaper that according to
the consensus reached between the State Government representatives and the DIC
officials on Thursday, the details of which has been kept as top secret for
Cabinet discussion, the State Government will hand over 300 acres of land to
the DIC for a price matching the actual expenditure incurred to the government
for acquiring that much of land.
This will be applicable to only 200 acres of land as the 100 acres of land at
Brahmapuram will be given free of cost to the DIC according to land allocation
guidelines in the State IT policy.
“The DIC team was not happy with the offer at first, but it finally agreed to
the government stand. Actually, the bargaining over the land price remained
inconclusive till the last 20 minutes of the final discussion,” they said.
A consensus was also reached on the price of the 64-acre Infopark at Kakkanad
which will be handed over to the DIC as part of the project. “It has been
agreed that the investment made by the government for setting up the park along
with an additional premium will be charged for the park. This will remain as
the government equity in the project.
The DIC has also been asked to keep the commitments and promises of Infopark
towards the business houses already functioning in the park. However, a final
agreement regarding the price of Infopark is still pending with the top
authorities of the DIC, they said.
The DIC, as it proposed earlier, agreed to give the government an assurance
regarding the number of employment opportunities being generated as part of the
Smart City project. “It has agreed to give compensation to the state if it
fails to generate the promised number of employment,” they said.
The Smart City, an extension of Dubai Internet City with global IT and
IT-enabled majors, will be developed in three phases with the first phase alone
pumping in Rs 850 crore.
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