Dubai firm keen to invest in another smart city after Kochi.

The Dubai-based SmartCity, which develops knowledge-based business townships such as Dubai Internet City and the soon-to-open SmartCity Kochi, is looking for another Indian site to develop as a free-zone business park.

Telangana, Madhya Pradesh and Karnataka are being considered for setting up the next SmartCity project in the PPP mode in partnership with the state governments. “Once the SmartCity Kochi project becomes fairly functional, we will start scouting for the next Indian project site,” Baju George, Managing Director of SmartCity, which is a member of the multi-billion-dollar government-owned Dubai Holding, told BusinessLine.

The first phase of SmartCity Kochi (SCK) will be thrown open to business on February 20 and the work on the much larger second phase would begin the same day.

Almost, the entire 6.5 lakh square feet first-phase building will host the ‘IT cluster’ and three-fourths of the built-up space has already been leased out to major IT companies.

George noted that Dubai, one of the seven emirates of the UAE, is looking to step up project investments in India following Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to the UAE in August and the setting up of a bilateral investment body. Following up on the initiative, Crown Prince Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, along with a high-level team of officials and investors, visited India last week and signed seven bilateral agreements.

Dubai, which has a huge sovereign wealth fund, has invested heavily in many countries.

HBL