Kerala chief minister Oommen Chandy has said the first phase of the mega IT infrastructure project Smart City Kochi would be completed by 2013.
The construction of the Smart City Pavilion will be completed within 14-15 months' time, and after that the construction of the first building of the project will commence. The construction of the 6,000 sft pavilion building would be over in 20 months, he said.
Addressing a press conference on Saturday, Abdul Lathif Al Mulla, chairman, Dubai-based Tecom Investment group, said the entire proejct would be operational within next five years.
Tecom would invest Rs 2,000 crore for constructing the project on 246 acres of land in Kakkanad area of Ernakulam district. New York-based Canon Design has been entrusted with the master plan designing of the proejct. The draft master plan will be completed within one month and the final will be presented by next year, he added.
The proejct will be completed in three phases and 7,000 professionals will get employment in the first phase and 90,000 people will be employed when the project is completed. The director board of the joint venture company of the project decided to enhance the stakes of the Kerala government from 16 per cent to 26 per cent.
In order to attract IT companies to the proejct, road shows will be conducted. SmartCity is a conglomerate promoted by Dubai Holding member, Tecom Investments, is based on Dubai's models of Internet City, Media City and Knowledge Village to promote the growth of knowledge-based companies. Abdul Latif Al Mulla also expressed confidence that the project will attract foreign direct investments to Kerala.
