Lease agreement and foundation for Smart City in kerala

Friday, Nov 16, 2007

The lease agreement for land earmarked for the Smart City project was signed here on Thursday.

Ajay Kumar, Director, Information Technology, representing the State government, and Farid Abdul Rahman, Executive Director of Tecom, signed the deed for 234.5 acres out of the total 246 acres (93.8 hectares out of 98.4 hectares) of land at a function held at Infopark. The deed is for 99 years.

The government received a demand draft for Rs. 99.4 crore out of the total Rs. 104 crore. The remaining land will be handed over as soon as the rehabilitation of inhabitants is completed. IT Adviser to the Chief Minister Joseph C. Mathew; District Collector A.P.M. Mohammed Hanish; Project Director, Smart City, Baju George; Infopark Chief Executive Officer Radhakrishnan Nair; and Tecom Marketing Director Jazia Mohammed were present.

Later, Mr. Mathew told presspersons that no waiver in registration and stamp duty was granted to Tecom.

“The State government has not granted any benefit not mentioned in the agreement signed in May. “If they were to claim benefits in terms of the land being in the Special Economic Zone, they would have to approach the Centre,” he said. He said the remaining amount due from Tecom would be received as soon as the rest of the land was handed over