
The state government in Kerala has fast-tracked the execution work of the much-awaited Kochi-Bengaluru Industrial Corridor (KBIC) project, Additional chief secretary Alkesh Kumar Sharma said, elaborating that KBIC is being executed in partnership between the state and Union governments. The state has finalized and approved the state support agreement (SSA) and shareholder's agreement (SHA) for KBIC and it has been sent to the Union government. Once the Centre approves it, both the Centre and state will ink the accords and will speed the execution of KBIC. An international agency will be appointed by the National Industrial Corridor Development Corporation for master planning of the land and detailed engineering. After the signing of the agreement, the state will speed up master planning. It will take eight months for the preparation of the master plan and that the project will be managed by special purpose vehicle (SPV) and as of now Kerala Industrial Infrastructure Development Corporation, (KINFRA) is the nodal agency for the project, KINFRA managing director Santhosh Koshy Thomas said that the agreements for the project would be signed by both the state and central government very shortly.