Jaber Bin Hafez, Vice Chairman, SmartCity Kochi and CEO of SmartCity Dubai, talks to the media after the meeting.


By Ashraf Padanna/Kochi


The SmartCity authorities have expressed satisfaction over the progress of work on allied infrastructure at its offshore project here as decided by a high-level meeting held last month.
Jaber Bin Hafez, the chief executive officer of SmartCity Dubai, lauded the Kerala government’s “proactive initiatives” saying it would strengthen the global investors’ confidence in the project.
“Inadequacy of road connectivity was a major concern raised by many international companies,” he said.
“We are glad that the government is taking steps to resolve at the earliest the external infrastructure challenges by building additional roads and extending the metro connectivity”.
SmartCity Kochi is the second offshore project of Dubai’s Tecom Investments under this brand after Malta, which was opened five years back.
The first phase here is set to open in October.
“SmartCity Kochi is fast developing and the internal infrastructure and other structures are at par with the initial vision of the project,” said Hafez.
Chief secretary Jiji Thomson convened a high-level meeting of officials on July 17 following criticism that the state government, a minority stakeholder in the project, failed in extending support to meet its June deadline for commissioning first phase.
Following this, weekly meetings between the officials of the government and SmartCity Kochi were being held. The chief secretary will hold another review meeting tomorrow which will be attended by Hafez as well.
Besides Thomson and Hafez, IAS, Dr. Baju George, SmartCity Dubai’s managing director and the interim CEO of SmartCity Kochi and senior officials from various government departments and TECOM will review the work progress.
The 650,000sq ft first IT tower is nearing completion fast, the officials said.
“Some of (the issues) have already been solved within this short period including (removal of) a few encroachments with the help of the district administration and other government officials,” said George.
“We are thankful to the leadership (of Thomson) in this regard and are certain that the pending issues will also be resolved on war footing as the first building is getting fully ready for inauguration by October”.
The renovation of the road to the project has already been started. The widened 4-lane road will be constructed from Edachira to Brahmapuram Bridge and completed in two months, prior to the inauguration.
“The estimate for the construction of the road from Brahmapuram Bridge to Karimugal was prepared, which also will be executed forthwith,” an official statement said.
In his earlier review meetings, the chief secretary had also ensured increased power availability that can cover the entire development plan covering 14mn sq. ft.
Formation of SmartCity Kochi Township Authority will be fast-tracked. Removal of certain remaining encroachments and issuing clarification orders to avail certain benefits that are otherwise due under the law also will get high priority.
The SmartCity will host information and communication technology (ICT), media, finance, education, research and innovation clusters when it is fully commissioned five years later. It expects to generate 90,000 jobs by then.
More than 40% of the first phase built-up area has already been booked by various firms while a few firms have entered into joint development contracts with the SmartCity authorities.