SMART CITY-KOCHI(KERALA)

Smart City ,Kochi in Kerala ia project In IT Special Economic Zone under construction in Kochi since a very long time. The real name of the project envisaged was Smart City Infrastructure Pvt Limited. It was envisaged to be a joint venture of Government of Kerala with 15% of Share and TECOM Investments ,a subsidiary of Dubai Holdings, with a share of 84%. This project also envisaged A minimum of 8.8 Million SqFt Of Built up Space out of which at least Least6.21 Million SqFt was specifically to be allotted to IT/ITES ALLIED services. The project when first planned was expected to cater for 90,000 Clearjob opportunities The basic vision of the SMART CITY PROJECT WAS TO Build up acknowledge based industrial Township across the World. The First Phase of the Project was inaugurated in October 2010. The Smart city is in a location of 12 KMaway from Kochi ( Ernakulam) &22 KM away from the kochi Airport at a place called KAKKANAD .This Project is coming up next to Info Park The Biggest IT Project in Kochi. The SmartCity,Infopark& Kinfra park these Trio together is supposed to change the face of Kochi by becoming the Most important centre of IT/ITES SERVICEs in the State of Kerala. VSNL IS LOOKING AFTER THE COMMUNICATION GATEWAY FOR THE Project.SmartCity would be linked directly to the VSNL gigs ITES router by Optical Fibre Cable& is likely to look after the need of Smart City to the maximum 100% uptime Data Connectivity. The other need of bandwidth required for Smart city would be. Looked after jointly by BSNL,Reliance,Bharati Airtel, & power grid Corporation of India. The Smart City project was originally initiated by the then CM A.K .Antony in 2004. Later on the MOU( Memorandum of Understanding between Govt of Kerala&Dubai Internet City in 2005 by Oomen Chandy with Dubai officials.. But the then Opposition alleged that the agreement signed by Oomen Chandy was not in the Best Interest of the State.however,before the issue was sorted out ,the Election to the Aasembly came up.the Oomen Chandy Government lost power& Achudanandan administration took over power in theState. Later on there had been some dispute over selling Land in The SEZ.This took. 4 years to sort out resulting in the Sleeping over the Project For more than 4 years by the ruling part The dispute was over 12% free holding land. The delay of 4 years could become detrimental to the cost of the Project.the exact amount likely to increase in the total cost of Smart city would be known only after the works relating to the Project is started & the trend of Increase/ decrease in the cost is roughly known. The issue was later on sorted out in February 2011. The Smart City Project ,according to the agreement signed Expects an investment of 2000 crores of Rupees. 246 Acres of Land is estimated to be the requirement for the Project. On competition of the project,the Smart City of Kochi is likely to be the biggest & largest IT Park in the country. The Smart City is Expected to have A minimum of 8,8000,000 Sq ft of Built up spaceWith a minimum of 6,200,000 Sq Ft Set aside for IT/ITESAllied services. On coming into existence it is to become The first of it's kind in India& the second to have built by TECOM. The Kerala CMOomen Chandy on 8 th October 2011Launched the construction of the Smart city. The Smart City Experience Pavilion Which locates the offices of administrative& Project Management Team was also launched On June 9 2012. So until now,the basic requirements have been met. The project might take some more time to be effective taking into account the Constraints & usual delays involved in any Project involving the Government. Let us hope the Smart city would become for real without any unforeseen & inordinate delay SreedharanMundanat 15 th April2013