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Tuesday, Jul 01, 2008
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SmartCity: work to begin by October

Staff Reporter

Government completes formalities for transfer of 100 more acres
More issues to be taken up at July 3 meet of director board

KOCHI: The construction work of SmartCity Kochi is expected to begin by October this year, said S. Sarma, Minister for Fisheries and Registration and chairman of SmartCity Kochi.

He was briefing the media here after the annual general meeting of SmartCity.

The State government has completed formalities on its part for transferring the remaining 100 acres needed for the project from the Special Economic Zone (SEZ).

Now it is for the promoters Tecom to follow up the procedure, Mr. Sarma said.

Tecom was faced with the difficulty of not being able to register the 236 acres identified for the SmartCity project. While 136 acres has been given the SEZ status, Tecom is seeking the same status for the remaining 100 acres.

Failing this, the company will have to go for separate registrations.

Issues such as setting up of an office and relocating the PWD road that passes through the project area will be taken up at the next director board meeting, to be held here on July 3, Mr. Sarma said.

He presided over the annual general meeting. Baju George, acting company secretary, SmartCity Kochi; Sreela, Additional Secretary, Government of Kerala; Midhun Beeru, business development manager, SmartCity Kochi; and Sulaiman Al-Riyami, business development manager, Tecom, attended the meeting.

The meeting approved the budget and accounts.

It also ratified the appointments of Ajayakumar, State IT Secretary, and Anirudha Damkey, director of finance, Tecom, as director board members at the second director board meeting.

Tecom had earlier appointed Colin Buchanan, one of the leading United Kingdom-based multi-disciplinary consultants handling town master planning, urban design and traffic engineering, as the master planner for the project.

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