The already-dim prospects of the proposed Smart City took a further beating as the talks between Smart City Dubai, the private promoters of the much-hyped project, and the Government of Kerala ended inconclusively at Trivandrum. The Dubai-based promoters have expressed unwillingness to hold further talks in Kerala and demanded that representatives of the Kerala Government travel to Dubai for further talks. Read along with their own December 31 deadline, this sounds suspiciously like a smokescreen being laid before beating a retreat.

The main outstanding issues include the issue of free-hold land, where Smart City wants 12% of the land or about  30 acres of the project land to be given to them for sale, whereas the Government of Kerala has refused to give any land acquired for the project for this purpose.

One cannot help but wonder such awe has been built up around just another IT park/SEZ project. After all, Smart City’s Dubai cousin, the Dubai Internet City, is less than 1/3rd the size of Technopark while the first phase of its much-celebrated project on the tiny island of Malta is barely the size of Gayathri MTF. Technopark itself will have 10 million sq.ft. of built-up area by 2014-15, compared to the 6.2 million sq.ft. that Smart City promises claims it will create in 10 years’ time, that is, in 2020.

Cause for Worry?

In this context, there is little for the IT/ITES industry in Kerala to be concerned about. Projects like Technopark, Technocity, Infopark, Cyber Park and the six District IT parks are poised to add over 25 million sq.ft. of space over the next 8 to 10 years. Technopark (Phases I, II and III) and Technocity along could add up to 15-20 million sq.ft. And unlike a lot of other proposals trumpted by the popular press, a lot of this space is already under construction. For example, in Technopark itself, over 3 million sq.ft. is currently under construction with a pipeline of over 10 million sq.ft.

The key thing is to attract at least one major MNC IT major and a major IT infrastructure developer, and from what was evident at the India IT Summit 2009 in Trivandrum and what can be gathered from the market, very active moves are afoot to achieve both these aims in the next few months.

With so much space being created along the IT Corridor, and the demand for space still being very strong, there is very little, if anything at all, to lose sleep over, folks!