KOCHI: Once again the stalemate over the fate of the ambitious Smart City project has surfaced, with the new state government failing to reconstitute the director board of the project.It was only a few months ago that the project, which had been hooked in controversies, was revived. And Tecom, the promoters of the project, had started to make appointments to the key posts to head the construction works of the project.With the UDF Government led by Oommen Chandy coming to power in May, S Sarma resigned as the chairman of Smart City, Kochi. Former IT Secretary Suresh Kumar, who was one of the directors, was replaced. But the UDF Government is yet to fill these vacancies.Soon after assuming power, Chief Minister Oommen Chandy had made it clear that the government would implement the project without delay.The state government had given special economic zone status (SEZ) to 246 acres of land that had been handed over to Smart City, Kochi.The difference of opinion between the Tecom and the state government over the freehold land right had led to the stalemate during the LDF Government's stint.As the state government and the Tecom had arrived at a consensus in February, the latter had made it clear that they would start the construction works soon.According to the plan by the Tecom, the construction of the boundary wall and the administrative block had to be started first.The Smart City Kochi project's foundation stone was laid on November 16, 2007 by the then Chief Minister V S Achuthanandan.The proposed project, to be jointly launched by the state government and Smart City Dubai, is slated to come up on a 246acre plot with 8.8 million square feet of builtup space, of which 70 percent is earmarked for IT and ITenabled services.
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