tecom delegation to arrive tomorrow

Sunday, May 31, 2009

KOCHI: Raising hopes of a solution to the uncertainty over the progress of the proposed SmartCity Kochi project, a high-level team from Tecom, the Dubai-based promoters of the project, will arrive in the city on Monday.
Fareed Abdulrahman, chief executive officer of the SmartCity Kochi, will lead the team. Though Mr. Abdulrahman has scheduled to address the media on Monday, there was no clarification as to whether the team will hold discussions with the State government representatives to iron out the differences of opinion hampering the progress of the project. No meeting has been scheduled with the State government till now, it is learnt. We have made it clear in our earlier communications with Tecom that the State government was open to holding discussions at any time,” Fisheries Minister S. Sarma, who is also the chairman of SmartCity Kochi, told ,He, however, added that no specific time had been fixed for discussions as yet. This is for the first time that a top level team from Tecom was visiting the State after the fifth meeting of the board of directors held here in December last year. The sixth director board meeting scheduled for March this year was called off by Tecom citing the poor health of one of its senior officials. The project had been remaining in limbo ever since the difference of opinion regarding the 12 per cent freehold land cropped up between Tecom and the State government. While Tecom had asked for inclusion of the provision of freehold land in the fresh lease, Mr. Sarma, airing the view of the State government, had said that the demand was an ‘untimely’ one.He said the issue should be raised by Tecom only after the master plan for the SmartCity Kochi project was readied and approved by the board. Besides, Chief Minister V.S. Achuthanandan had on more than one occasion said that Tecom was reluctant to take the project forward since it was affected by the global economic recession. Mr. Abdulrahman shot it down during a telephonic interaction with mediapersons soon after Mr. Achuthanandan expressed the view first time early this year.However, Tecom maintained complete silence even after Mr. Sarma accused it of raising untimely demands.