Smart City Kochi - IT park Cochin

Smart City Kochi was the project proposed by the A K Antony government during the year 2003 and later the Oommen Chandy government invited Dubai Internet City for undertaking the project of Smart City. Smart city Kochi was having the potential to crate more than 1 lakh jobs in which more than 80000 will get direct employment in the first stage itself. It was expected to create more than 5 lakh jobs at the last stage of the project.

The Dubai internet city which is a joint venture of Tecom and Sama Dubai was ready to invest about $400 million for Smart City Kochi. The Smart city Kochi was about to build in Kochi near the Info Park. The Smart city was expected to be one of the largest IT parks in the country and the first smartcity project. The main problems behind Smartcity project was Tecom's need of free-hold land in certain proposition to the total land at the initial stage of the project. The government rejected this and stated that the condition will only be approved after the completion of master plan.

Later on 2008, during the period of recession, the government under V.S Achuthanandan doubted the financial background of Tecom and the project was totally withdrawn. Now the government is planning a new IT project in the Info Park which will create more than 1.10 lakh employment opportunities. The new IT project (IT park) from government of Kerala is expected to have a budget of Rs.2500 crore.