Master plan for Smart City may be delayed

Kochi: Hinting that the preparation of the master plan for Smart City Kochi may be delayed further, the project authorities have made it clear that some modifications are required in the plan. After a high-level meeting here, Smart City managing director Baju George said that the master plan would be modified in tandem with the changing times.Baju George denied reports that the number of IT jobs would come down with the new government deciding to relax the norms for the special economic zone (SEZ) status.The conditions related to jobs and other things would remain the same as that in the framework agreement, he said. Though a meeting with the KSEB and the Gas Authority of India Limited (GAIL) officials were held regarding relocating of tower lines and pipelines through the land handed over to the Smart City project, it could not make any headway.The latest row is over the tower lines from Pallikkara BDCP project to the sub-station at Kakkanad. The Smart City authorities have demanded that the tower should be relocated. But the KSEB has said that the project, to be commissioned in September, would be delayed if the towers are relocated.In the case of the pipelines, the GAIL authorities said it would not cause any  problem for the project. They said there were difficulties in relocating the pipelines. As the meeting failed to arrive at a consensus on the issue, it was decided to convene a high-level meeting to discuss the issue later.