The Hindu : Kerala / Kochi News : Smart City: officials meet to give final shape to document

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Oct 05, 2005

Kerala

Kerala - Kochi

Smart City: officials meet to give final shape to document

Staff Reporter

Meet discusses procedures for setting up an SPV

KOCHI: Discussions between a team of officials from Dubai Internet City and the State Government on Tuesday focussed on giving shape to a document for a final agreement for setting up an Internet city on the outskirts of Kochi.

Information Technology Secretary P.H. Kurien and Girish Babu, Chief Executive Officer of InfoPark, along with legal experts represented the State Government, while Deepak Padma nabhan, Chief, Planning and Business Development, Baju George, Senior Manager, real estate and planning, and Deepti Khosla, Business Development Manager, were in the Dubai Internet City team. Chief Minister Oommen Chandy had announced on Monday that the final agreement for setting up the smart city would be signed in December.

Sources said that the discussions on Tuesday included the procedures for setting up a special purpose vehicle (SPV) for promoting the Smart City on 300 acres of land being provided by the State Government.

The State Government would have nine per cent stake in the SPV while the Dubai-based TECOM (Technology, Electronic Commerce And Media Free Zone), promoters of the Dubai Internet City (DIC), will hold the rest of the shares.

The land being allotted by the State Government will be in the name of the SPV. The discussions also included the provisions for a road link to the proposed Smart City. The State Government and TECOM had signed a memorandum of understanding on September 9 for setting up the Smart City of which the present Infopark will be part. However, it has been agreed that the Infopark brand would be kept in tact. The Dubai team is expected to return on October 18 to discuss the final document further before it is ready for the singing, it is learnt.

The State Government is providing 100 acres of land for the Smart City project in lieu of the 33,300 jobs that is expected to be generated by DIC in 10 years. This chunk of the land is estimated to cost Rs. 20 crores. InfoPark and 62.5 acres of land on which the property is housed are being handed over to the Dubai company for a consideration of Rs. 109 crores. 136 acres more of land will be acquired by the Government and handed over to the company at a cost of Rs. 36 crores.

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