Kochi Smart City’s master plan approved at Dubai board meeting

Construction work for the first phase of the Smart City project in Kochi in the Indian state of Kerala will start soon, as the project’s master plan has been approved by the board of directors of the joint venture between Tecom Investments of Dubai and the Kerala government.

The master plan of the much-talked-about Smart City project was approved on Wednesday by the board of directors at a meeting held in the Emirates Tower Hotel, Dubai which was attended among others by Kerala Chief Minister Oommen Chandy, who is currently visiting the UAE with other cabinet ministers from the state.

This is the second time that Chandy is visiting the UAE in connection with the Smart City Project. 

The Smart City project in Kochi is just one of the several high-profile projects that UAE-based investors are developing in Kochi. There are also plans to develop a media city and a knowledge village in Kochi, according to visiting Kerala ministers.

The Smart City project master plan covers an area of 50 acres of land in the commercial capital of Kerala, and 1,500,000 square feet building premises. A major part of the area will be devoted to develop buildings and infrastructure for information technology.  While 90,000 square feet of developed area will be devoted for IT and related industries, 60,0000 square feet area will be for non-IT related facilities.  Construction will start on July 1, 2013 covering 400,000 square feet buildings for the IT industry.

Kerala State Industry and Information Technology Minister P K Kunjalikutty, Smart City Vice Chairman Abdulatif Al Mulla, Keral IT Special Secretary K H Kurian and UAE-based NRI businessman M A Yousuf Ali are among theose who attended the board meeting.

According to the master plan approved on Wednesday, the first phase of the construction work will be to complete two building complexes spanning 40,000 square feet in 18 months.

Initiated in 2004, the Kochi Smart City project has been delayed for many reasons but in recent past, both the government of Kerala and its UAE partners have speeded up the process after sorting out some complex issues like getting a ‘special economic zone’ status for the entire project area, which was delayed due to a river flowing through the middle of the project area. Now it has been decided to construct a bridge across the Kadambra river, which passes through the 256 acre land earmarked for the project. Smarty City Kochi obtained ‘special economic zone’ status for the entire area in January 2013.

Visiting Kerala cabinet minister K C Joseph said the state government is also planning to construct a media city in Kochi, similar to the Dubai Media City. “I will be visiting Dubai Media City to study its functioning. We are planning a similar media city in Kochi,” Joseph told Emirates 24|7.

Earlier, Kerala Education Minister Abdul Rab lead a team of education experts to study the structure of Knowledge Village to start a similar project in Kochi. The Smart City project is planned as an overseas extension of Dubai Internet City as various companies located in the Middle East are looking for cheaper back end services.
 

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