Kerala Cabinet clears Smart City project

State to take over the project if DIC fails to create the proposed jobs

The Kerala Cabinet on Wednesday cleared the Rs 15-billion Smart City project, which is to be undertaken in Kochi by the Dubai Internet City (DIC). The pact in this regard will be inked next week.

A new company to take up the project has been registered and the Kerala government will hold nine per cent stake in the project.

Briefing the media after a Cabinet meeting, chief minister Oommen Chandy said, "the agreement for the project has been given the nod with fresh clauses making it favourable for the state.''

The new clauses has got the approval of DIC too. One of the fresh clauses empowers the Kerala Government to take over the project if DIC fails to create the proposed jobs. The chief minister said that it was also decided that a Rs 6,000 penalty would be slapped on DIC for each job it failed to create.

Further, the 100 acres of land that the government would provide for the project would also be taken back unconditionally. A high-level team from DIC is expected to visit the state next week to sign the agreement.

It may be recalled that the pact for the proposed Smart City project was signed on September 9 last year by the Kerala government and Ahmed Bin-Bayath, director general of the Dubai Technology, Electronics, Commerce, and Media Zone Authority, a department functioning under the Dubai government. There have been many a legal wrangle ever since and the project had been hanging fire.

According to sources here, the state government had, in the MoU, said it would hand over the land that houses the Infopark at Kochi at a cost of Rs 109 crore, 136 acres of land at Rs 26.4 lakh per acre, and another 100 acres on a 99-year lease free of cost.

The Smart City project, when takes off, is expected to create as many as 60,000 jobs, sources said.