DIC clears all hurdles for Smart City

Thiruvananthapuram: The $350 million Smart City project at Kochi will soon become reality as its developer Dubai Internet City (DIC) has finally agreed to the revised terms and conditions of the Kerala government.

The DIC through a fax to Kerala Chief Secretary Lissy Jacob has informed that they have agreed to all the conditions as laid down by the Kerala government, Joseph C. Mathew, IT advisor to Chief Minister V.S. Achuthanandan, told IANS yesterday.

"Now that the DIC has agreed to the terms of the government, I don't think there should be any more hassles. The other details like the date for inking the agreement would be worked out by the government," said Mathew.

The development is seen as a moral victory for Achuthanandan as he had earlier opposed the terms for the project worked out by the then the Congress-led UDF government - a stance which was seen as anti-development.

Achuthanandan also insisted that Infopark would not be handed over to it and demanded an assurance for creation of 90,000 jobs. More importantly, he also maintained DIC would have no say about other IT ventures that might come up in Kochi.

"For the past two days DIC officials were talking with government officials and the chief minister was also kept informed with the developments. Now there should be no more issues," added Mathew.