Kochi, Saturday, May 30, 2009: A crucial meeting of the Tecom authorities and the state government is expected to take place next week after, the Tecom authorities have informed that they will be arriving here next week. The team would be led by Smartcity CEO Farrid Abdul Rahman. The arrival comes in the wake of fresh disagreements between government and Tecom authorities regarding the freehold rights.

Tecom, of late, had demanded freehold rights on 12pecent of the project land, which works out to 39 acres,. Kerala says the freehold facility clause will come into operation only after the finalisation of the SmartCity master plan.

The proposed $316m project on 246 acres at Kakkanad, with 8.8 million square feet of built-up space, earmarks 70 percent for IT and IT-enabled services and envisages jobs to nearly one million IT professionals. The foundation stone of the project was laid on November 16, 2007 but there has been little progress since.

Smart City chief executive Fareed Abdulrahman had demanded settlement of the land-holding issue as the first step towards instilling confidence in the venture.
At the press conference in Kochi, State Fisheries Minister S Sarma who is also the chairman of Smartcity project accused the Tecom’s stand, saying the latter was raising the fresh demand ever before laying one brick on the project site.
He wondered whether the dilatory tactic on the part of Tecom had to do with a possible funds crunch on account of global recession.