The National Industrial Corridor Development and Implementation Trust (NICDIT) has given approval for developing the Kochi Global Industrial Finance and Trade (GIFT) City in Aluva as an Early Bird Project. The project will be implemented under the Kochi Bangalore Industrial Corridor. The GIFT City will come up in 220 ha of land in Aluva, a strategic location in the vicinity of Cochin International Airport. The project will put Kochi on global map as a destination with state-of-the-art infrastructure. The aim was to bring in investment for development of trunk infrastructure to the tune of Rs 1,600 crore, besides giving a spur to building PPP infrastructure to the tune of Rs 18,000 crore over a period of 10 years.
This will create over 1.20 lakh direct and 3.6 lakh indirect employment opportunities for people in Kerala and have a great multiplier effect on the state’s economy. The Global City Project is planned with a financial/business centre as an integral part and growth driver for the city complemented with knowledge-based industries. It will provide an integrated ecosystem for development of globally competitive hi-tech services and financial hubs.
The land acquisition for the project is expected to be completed by February 2021. A master planning agency will start work from early September 2020 and complete the master plan by February 2021. Activities like environment clearance, tenders, etc will start in March 2021 and completed by May-June 2021. Master planning activities will be completed in eight months and construction works will start after selection of agency for construction through a transparent bidding process.
The state government has accorded administrative sanction for establishing and developing GIFT City and sanctioned Rs 540 crore for acquisition of land which will be its share in the project. The Central government through NICDIT will provide an equal amount as its share and grant additional funds if required for completing the infrastructure works as a soft loan to the special purpose vehicle (SPV) to be set up for it. Besides, the Centre will help in marketing the project nationally and internationally to potential investors. If required it will mobilise financial resources from the private sector, market, bilateral and multilateral agencies on behalf of SPV for the project.
