The first building of the Smart City will be finished by the end this year and the official inauguration of the project is now tentatively fixed on March 25, 2015. The meeting of Board of Directors of the Smart City, which was held in Abu Dhabi, expressed satisfaction over the project picking up momentum as the construction of the 6.5 lakh sq ft first IT building, is in full swing. The meeting was attended by Kerala Industry Minister P K Kunhalikutty, Smart City Kochi Chairman Abdullatif AlMulla, SmartCity CEO Baju George, Managing Director Gigo Joseph, Director M A Yousuf Ali, Kerala Principal Secretary - IT P H Kurian and Sanjive Khosla. The Board expects that the first-phase of the Smart City project will be completed by December 2014, said Minister P K Kunhalikutty, after the meeting.
“We are looking forward to March 25 next year as a tentative date for the official inauguration of the firstphase. The state government is happy that despite the initial delays, the dream project of the state has gathered momentum. The government and the Smart City are committed towards quality employment generation which will witness a revolutionary reverse brain-drain which has been long overdue. The state offers its full support to the project to meet the deadline,” the Minister said. Abdullatif AlMulla reiterated that generating business opportunities that result in employment generation would be the first priority of the project. “At Smart City, we envisage one of the largest walkto- work enclaves in the world with fully-integrated futureproof facilities for work, live and play,” he said.
The clearance from the Irrigation and PWD Departments has been obtained for the 1st bridge and SEZ notification of the Non-Processing Land B has also been received. Planning for the firstphase of roads has commenced and is expected to include the key arterial roads that connect both Processing and Non-Processing zones. On the infrastructure front, the five-lane bridge connecting Infopark Road with Smart City Processing Zone is in the tendering stage.