By Ashraf Padanna
KOCHI:
Kerala's port city Kochi is becoming the new destination for infrastructure majors both from India and the Gulf.Two years ago, the Dubai Internet City signed a memorandum of understanding with the state government to develop the Rs15bn SmartCity, a self-sustained township for knowledge-based industries.Thought the project is yet to takeoff, thanks to the governments failure to handover the designated 256 acres of land, a slew of infrastructure majors announced their Kochi plans similar to SmartCity. At least Rs150bn is projected to be pumped into the real estate market here within the next three to five years.Housing Development Infrastructure Limited (HDIL) is the latest to join the bandwagon offering similar township offering spaces for office, living, education, shopping and leisure.Chief Minister V S Achuthanandan will lay foundation stone for HDILs Rs40bn Cyber City which is projected to create 7.9mn sq ft built-up space in 70 acres and 60,000 new jobs within the next four years. HDIL has purchased 70 acres from the government-owned Hindustan Machine Tools at Kalamassery to build the facility.The biggest of the projects is the 500-acre Hi-Tech City of the Sobha Group headed by P N C Menon, a Oman-based Malayali businessman.Work on the Rs50bn project, which claims will create 75,000 direct jobs and seven million sq ft of developed space for research, trade and development in information technology, bio-technology, electronic hardware and other knowledge-based services is fast progressing.Menon also set a record by offering some 100 quality apartments to those displaced by the project.Besides Emaar MGF, the Indian arm of the Dubai-based construction major, other prominent investors from the Gulf are the KGA Group of Kuwait, the EMKE Group of Abu Dhabi and Indroyal.Property prices have shot by around 60% from the last year.“Kochi is fast becoming the preferred destination for high-paid executives and NRIs, said K Arun Kumar, managing director, Mir Realtors.
http://www.gulf-times.com/site/topics/article.asp?cu_no=2&item_no=196531&version=1&template_id=40&parent_id=22
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