Twist to Cybercity dispute

Kochi: In a twist to the Cybercity controversy, a top official of the Housing Development and Infrastructure Limited (HDIL) on Thursday clarified that there was no move to sell the land intended for the mega IT project.

“We sought joint promoters for the project. There is no outright sale of the land intended,” K.V. John, the project manager of Cybercity told a private TV channel.

The 70 acres of HMT land at Kalamassery was bought by Blue Star Realtors Private Limited, a subsidiary of HDIL, which proposed to invest around Rs2,300 crore to set up a state-of-the-art IT park in 2008.

But an advertisement in newspapers recently said that company was putting up the land for sale. The clarification by the top official, in Mumbai, added to the controversy as officials in Kochi refused to confirm it.

Meanwhile, Opposition Leader V.S. Achuthanandan threatened to move the court if the company went ahead with the sale plan. “It amounted to cheating the people,” he told media persons in Aluva.

It may be recalled that a section in the CPM, supporting the then chief minister Achuthanandan, had expressed displeasure over the allotment of HMT land for the project which promised to create 60,000 jobs.

Courtesy: The Asian Age