KOCHI: The first phase of the Smart City project will be completed by September.
An evaluation meeting of the project held at the District Collectorate here on Friday assessed that the work of the project has been progressing in such a way that the first phase could be finished by September. The construction work of various infrastructure facilities related to the project has been progressing. Action has been taken to start the work of approach road as well.
“ The electric connection steps will be completed in cooperation with the state government. In the estimated Rs 650 crore granted for the first phase, 400 crore has already been spent,” officials evaluated at the meeting.
In the plan fund, 16 per cent will be contributed by the state government. “Fifty lakh square feet of the building will be completed in 2018,” said IT principal secretary A Sureshkumar.
The encroachers at the land for the Smart City has already been evicted. Steps would be taken to completely evict the encroachments.
“At the same time steps have been taken to acquire 19 cents of land that have title deeds”, said Fort Kochi Sub Collector S Suhas. Steps have to be completed in the case of the remaining private and government land to be acquired for the project.
Land survey will again be conducted in the case of land of an anganawadi under the Thrikkakkara municipality. KSEB has shown willingness in providing land for the land acquired by it for installing 220 KV line. Apart from this, the government is considering to provide land in return for the four acres acquired from Kinfra. The government is also considering multiple approach roads to and around the Smart City. It includes Chakkaraparamb Express Way, Kizhakkambalam Express Way, the new road that would connect Vytile-Eroor-Seaport airport road and the road from IMG Junction to Brahmapuram.
The decision to extend the metro rail, which is under construction, to Smart city have also been progressing. The government will provide 40-50 megawatt needed for the project. For this, a feeder of 220 KV would be allotted from the existing sub station at Infopark. A township has also been envisaged related to smart city. District collector M G Rajamanickam presided over the meeting.