Master plan for GIFT City by March

KOCHI: The master plan for the proposed Kochi Global Industrial Finance and Trade (GIFT) City at Ayyampuzha will be ready by March 2021. The CH2M HILL International Ltd (Jacobs Engineering Group), the master planning agency, is currently preparing the detailed plan for the project, which is expected to create over 1.2 lakh direct and 3.6 lakh indirect employment opportunities thereby giving a major boost to the state’s economic growth. 

The project is being implemented as part of the Kochi Bengaluru Industrial Corridor (KBIC). “A high-level meeting in connection with the project was held in Kochi on Friday. Various stakeholders, including those from the Industry and trade bodies,  gave valuable suggestions for development of an eco-friendly and non-polluting project. They appreciated the plan as the project will create huge investment and employment opportunities. The stakeholders meeting focussed on identifying specific services, trade and knowledge components in Ayyampuzha project,” said Additional Chief Secretary (Special Projects) Alkesh Kumar Sharma, who is also heading the KBIC.

KINFRA managing director Santhosh Koshy Thomas, collector S Suhas, Palakkad collector D Balamurali and  representatives of the master-planning agency attended the meeting. The Global City project will put Kochi on the global map as a destination with state-of-the-art infrastructure by bringing in trunk infrastructure to the tune of `1,600 crore, besides giving a spur to building PPP infrastructure to the tune of `18,000 crore over 10 years.

The meeting aimed at assessing the market demand for the multi-crore project was attended by industrialists representing Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry and The Indus Entrepreneurs (TiE) Kochi.

The state government will acquire and provide land while the Union government, through National Industrial Corridor Development and Implementation Trust (NICDIT), will provide an equal amount as its share in the project. The Centre will also provide additional funds if required for completing infrastructure work as soft loan to the special purpose vehicle.