Smart City Kochi Observations

Agreement reached on Smart City project, Finally

admin — Thu, 03 Feb 2011 19:07:47 +0000

Kerala government, representatives of Dubai government and promoters TECOM came to an agreement at a meeting here on Wednesday for revival of the Smart City project in Kochi which was in limbo for about five years. On Februry 2, 2011 the final issues about the agreements are resolved and an agreement is reached.

Chief Minister V. S. Achuthanandan and Ahamed Humaid Al Tayer, member of the Supreme Committee for Dubai World Group and Dubai Holding Group, UAE, announced after signing the minutes of the meeting that work would be started in a few months.

The Chief Minister said that construction of the building would start at the earliest in the proposed location in Kochi. The details of the agreement would be announced after approval by Cabinet this evening.A formal contract is expected soon, but no dates are announced yet.

Mr. Al Tayer said that he was confident that the work could be taken up within three months. Any revision of investment amount would be left to the Director Board.

It is understood that the government and the promoters have agreed that the freehold of 12 per cent of the land proposed in the frame work agreement would be within the special economic zone and would be inalienable. The freehold area would come to about 29.5 acres of total 246 acres earmarked for the project. The balance is to be given to the promoter-company on lease for 99 years.

The master plan for the project is to be completed within a month and the free hold transferred to the company on preparation of the plan.

The government is also understood to have agreed to consider waiver of stamp duty for registration of the deed.

CodeVentures is looking for tech kerala startups for seed funding

admin — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 03:47:51 +0000

CodeVentures is a different type of kerala venture capital firm helping very early stage companies to go from the idea stage to reality. It is Kerala based seed funding firm looking for local tech startups. The idea is to identify promising tech startup ideas, regardless of the experience level of the founders. Ideal founders would be recent graduates with solid technical skills and looking to create a world class product or service. primary focuss of the firm is software and web services. It plans to fund 5 tech startups for the March to June 2010 batch. In addition to seed funding the the funded comapnies also will recive help in securing capaital, exposure to other founders, entreprenuers and business people.

Talks between Tecom and Kerala Goverment at standstill

admin — Sun, 27 Sep 2009 20:54:52 +0000

Freehold land issue holds up Smart City project in Kochi

Talks between Dubai-based Tecom and the Kerala government failed to end the stalemate over the commencement of work on Smart City Kochi.

The two-day high-level meeting, which ended here on Thursday, decided to continue with the dialogue at a later stage. It was also decided to convene a director board meeting of the joint venture company between the state government and Tecom on September 30.

The much-awaited meeting had raised a ray of hope on the prestigious IT project of the state, but the issue of freehold land was a major hurdle to arrive at an amicable solution.

Representatives of Tecom headed by Fareed Abdul Rehman, CEO, insisted on getting 12 per cent of the total land area as freehold. The government had allotted 235 acres of land near Kochi for the project, of which 132 acres has already got SEZ status.

As the land lease agreement between Tecom and the Kerala government has expired, a fresh agreement has to be signed for continuing with the Rs 1,200-crore project. Though both the state government and Tecom are ready to sign such an agreement, Tecom is insisting on including freehold land as a condition in the lease agreement. The is despite the government team led by Neela Gangadharan, chief secretary, informing that the issue could be settled once the master plan is approved.

The foundation stone for the project was laid in October 2007, but there is no sign of even a site office. The Smart City project in Malta, which was initiated along with the Kochi project, is nearing completion. Smart City Kochi promises around 100,000 potential employment opportunity for IT professionals once fully operational.

Smart City work to begin only after SEZ status

admin — Tue, 14 Oct 2008 01:17:56 +0000

Kochi, Oct 13 (IANS):

Yet another roadblock to the Smart City Kochi. Work on the Rs.15 billion Smart City project here will start only after it gets special economic zone (SEZ) status, its board decided at a meeting here Monday.

The Left Democratic Front (LDF) government inked a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Smart City Dubai in March 2007 and the foundation stone was also laid last year, but the actual work is yet to start.

Addressing reporters after the fourth board meeting, Smart City Kochi chairman and state Fisheries Minister S. Sarma said the board was waiting for the notification from the central government.

‘It has been decided that work will commence only after the notification comes. Since there is a court case going on by an evictee, the registration of the land will take time,’ Sarma said.

Of the total 246 acres, SEZ status has been given in principle by the central government only for 136 acres.

Denying allegations that Smart City Dubai was pulling out, project chief executive Farid Abdul Rehman said the company was happy the way things were progressing.

Last week, opposition leader Oommen Chandy said the previous United Democratic Front government had given concessions to the tune of Rs.460 million to the Dubai company, while the LDF government gave concessions worth over Rs.10 billion when it renegotiated the agreement.

Chandy also demanded a probe into the allegations.

According to the agreement, the project work was to have commenced Oct 2. Now, with the board deciding that it would wait for SEZ status, it is now clear that there would be a further delay.

Asked about the the SEZ guidelines brought out by the government, Sarma said these guidelines would not be applicable to the Smart City project.

‘The project would be guided by the agreement,’ he added.

The Smart City project would have 8.8 million square feet of built-up space, of which 70 percent would be for IT and IT-enabled services, and would employ 90,000 professionals.

Armia Systems, Inc is hiring for Kochi Infopark Vacancies

admin — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 14:46:21 +0000

Armia Systems Pvt Ltd is a fully owned subsidiary of Armia Systems, Inc. USA. Armia Systems develops and markets innovative web software products. Also also provide technical support / remote server administration to web hosting providers and datacenters across the world. We are currently in search of talented self starters for our development and support center at Kakkanad, Infopark, Cochin. Freshers are also encouraged to apply for some of the positions.

If you are interested in joining a fast growing, energetic team, please forward your resume to jobs@armia.com. Include the position name in your application for immediate consideration. All correspondences will be treated confidentially.

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NEW YORK (Associated Press) - Hill International Inc. said Monday it has been awarded a $9.1 million contract to manage construction of a technology center in the southeastern Indian coastal city of Kochi.

Hill International said the contract from SmartCity Infrastructure Private Ltd. for work on the SmartCity Kochi development is expected to run two and a half years. Hill’s responsibilities will range from project administration to document control and master scheduling.

SmartCity Kochi is being developed on about 300 acres designated as a special economic zone, and is expected to become one of India’s largest business parks, Hill said. The project’s first phase is expected to cost $350 million.

Shares of Hill International fell 8 cents to $16.81 in afternoon trading.

Marlton, N.J.-based Hill has 80 offices worldwide.

Kerala Smart City project gets SEZ status

admin — Mon, 04 Aug 2008 03:07:35 +0000

The way for implementation of the Smart City project in Kerala’s port city of Cochin has been cleared with the federal government granting special economic zone status (SEZ) to the mega IT facility.

The board of approvals (BoA) for the SEZs, which met in New Delhi yesterday, has granted the SEZ status to 136 out of 246 acres of land acquired for the project, said State IT secretary Ajay Kumar. The remaining area was not considered along with 136 acres as it is separated by a river.

The BoA has sought a separate application for SEZ status for 100 acres of land acquired from the Kerala Stat Electricity Board. Ajay Kumar said the application would be submitted before the next meeting of the board next month.

The last BoA meeting deferred a decision on the SEZ status following a complaint filed by one Kuruvilla, alleging that the land for the project was acquired without ensuring proper rehabilitation of the displaced. The board rejected the complaint after considering the explanation furnished by the state government.

The project promoted by the Dubai-based TECOM in joint partnership with the Kerala government, envisages creating 8.8 million sq ft of built-up space and supporting infrastructure for IT and IT-enabled service companies.

The SEZ status brings a slew of benefits to the developers. They include 10-year tax holiday, Exemption from duties on all imports for project development, 10 per cent FDI for all manufacturing activities, speedy approvals, clearances and customs procedures and dispute resolution etc.

There will be no foreign ownership restrictions in developing zone infrastructure and no restrictions on repatriation. The developers also get freedom to develop township with residential areas, markets, play grounds, clubs and recreation centers without any restrictions on foreign ownership.

Smart City project director Baju George told reporters at New Delhi after the BoA meeting that the master plan for the project would be submitted next month. “We are hopeful that we would be able to begin the work on the infrastructure project by September”, he added.

The Smartcity has already shortllisted four national and international companies for preparing a detailed master plan. The foundation stone for the project was laid by Chief Minister V S Achuthanandan last November.

The project modelled on Dubai Internet City, Dubai Media City and Dubai Knowledge Village has an employment generation potential of over 90,000 jobs over 10 years.

webmaster sites

admin — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 00:37:51 +0000

Here are some interesting websites and tools for webmasters.

SmartCity rises again

admin — Fri, 21 Dec 2007 18:57:02 +0000

By K.G.Kumar

Last week Kochi played host to a scintillating ceremony to lay the foundation stone for what has been billed as one of

India’s largest knowledge-based industry townships.

Kerala Chief Minister V.S. Achuthanandan and Fareed Abdurrahman, Executive Director, Dubai’s Tecom Investments, were in a decidedly upbeat mood as they announced grand plans for the SmartCity Kochi project promoted by

Dubai’s SmartCity, the joint-venture company formed by Tecom Investments and Sama Dubai, both members of Dubai Holding.

Lauding it as a fine example of public-private participation, the Chief Minister said the SmartCity project aims to become a “township for knowledge-based companies.” The project will be based on the successful business models of

Dubai

Internet

City and

Dubai

Media

City and

Dubai

Knowledge

Village.

With an estimated investment of $350 million, the project aims to create 8.8 million square feet of built-up space with necessary infrastructure, environment and support systems, which will be offered to knowledge-based companies. It will also offer a host of business support services as well as residential, hospitality and recreational facilities.

‘Hub’ of excellence

Fareed Abdul Rahman, a senior executive of the TECOM Investments, was quoted in The Hindu as saying that the Kochi project was the second SmartCity, the other being SmartCity Malta.

“We envisage SmartCity Kochi to be a significant hub of excellence for knowledge-based industries. At an early stage, we had identified

Kochi as a location with significant potential to become a knowledge-based industry hub,” he was quoted in the paper.

Expected to offer world-class infrastructure, environment and support systems, SmartCity Kochi will be a cardinal building block for the State’s knowledge-based industry growth and is anticipated to create 90,000 jobs when completed. The Kerala Government has transferred 246 acres of land to SmartCity Kochi as part of the agreement.

“After we signed the agreement for this project in May, we have had a large number of enquiries to build similar projects across the State. We will go ahead with similar projects in every district in the State,” the Chief Minister announced at the inaugural ceremony.

Whether these are mere pipe dreams and whether the 90,000 jobs promised will actually materialize is far from clear.

Yet, in the current flush of excitement in

Kochi, the State’s commercial capital, no one seems really bothered.

Cluster history

Around the world, parks have helped usher in mini-industrial revolutions, ever since Alfred Marshall, an economist at the University of Cambridge, US, and the father of research parks, first suggested the idea of synergistic industries clustering together to enjoy economies of scale. He imagined a scenario where academic research and business acumen merged to create new companies, jobs and wealth.

The first such park, still regarded the mother of all technology parks, is the

Stanford

Research

Park at

Stanford

University, in northern

California, built in 1951.

It gave birth to some of the world’s most famous tech companies - from Hewlett-Packard to Yahoo! to Cisco Systems, not to mention hundreds of small startups across the

US.

The International Association of Science Parks (IASP) officially defines a park as “an organization managed by specialized professionals whose main aim is to increase the wealth of its community by promoting the culture of innovation and the competitiveness of its associated businesses and knowledge-based institutions.”

A park, it says, should stimulate and manage “the flow of knowledge and technology among universities, R&D institutions, companies and markets.” Moreover, it should use incubation and spin-off processes to facilitate the creation and growth of innovative companies. Finally, the IASP says, a park should provide value-added services, and high-quality space and facilities.

The challenge

That remains the challenge for

Kochi’s SmartCity. One key element in the success of parks is their ability to meet their client companies’ needs by providing the right mix of services and facilities, co-operation and networking.

One analyst says that good science parks do by design what occurred organically in California’s

Silicon Valley.

How SmartCity Kochi designs its future will thus be crucial. Rather than be overly biased towards software and Internet firms, today’s successful parks focus on companies working in such cutting-edge areas as biotechnology, nanotechnology (and materials science), wireless communications, environmental technology and high-end graphics, animation and computer gaming media. Will SmartCity Kochi obs be able to lure some of them to set up shop in Kerala?