Kerala - Kochi   

Work on Cyber City to begin today

KOCHI: After being riddled with controversy for more than four years, the Cyber City project at Kalamassery is all set to take off.

Minister for Industries Elamaram Karim will launch the construction work of the project at 10.30 a.m. on Thursday. Minister for Transport Jose Thettayil will preside.

The project assumes significance coming as it does close on the heels of the progress in the SmartCity Kochi project.

The Cyber City project has been named the Kalamassery Special Economic Zone (SEZ) as the entire 70 acres of the project has been notified by the Union Ministry of Commerce as SEZ, sources with the Housing Development and Infrastructure Limited (HDIL), promoters of the project, said.

Of the 70 acres, 70 per cent has been identified as processing unit dedicated to IT /IT-enabled services SEZ with focus on exports.

The remaining 20 per cent has been categorised as non-processing zone and will feature shopping malls, convention centres, apartment complexes and much more thus developing it into a full-fledged township, sources said.

Three buildings at a total built-up space of 10 lakh sq.ft will be readied in two years as part of the first phase set to be launched on Thursday.

The promoters will make a total investment of Rs.2,300 crore – of which Rs.500 crore will be for the first phase alone — for the entire project. Besides, there will be investments by IT companies to develop their own space.

The entire project will be completed in nine years by which time it would have a total built-up space of 1 crore sq.ft.

The project, when completed, will generate at least 60,000 direct employment in addition to another 80,000 indirect jobs.

The land owned by HMT was handed over to the promoters of the project in November 2006.

The foundation stone for the project was laid in January 2008 soon after which it got mired in controversy. The legality of the land transfer was questioned in the courts before the controversy subsided.

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