Thiruvananthapuram, March 10 (IANS) Kerala has told Smart City Dubai it will not be given freehold rights over the IT park in Kochi to be built by the developer, Chief Minister V.S. Achuthanandan said Wednesday.

'The freehold demand that they are now raising is not there in the agreement and hence we have written to them that we just cannot honour things that are not there in the original agreement,' he told reporters after a weekly cabinet meeting.

He said the Rs 1,500-crore IT project is being delayed because of the weak financial position of the Dubai-based firm.

'This is getting delayed because they have been raising new demands that are not listed in the original agreement. We feel that they are doing this because their financial position is weak,' said Achuthanandan.

In 2007, Achuthanandan had laid the foundation stone for the mega IT project which is to come up on a 246 acre plot, providing 90,000 jobs.

Since then, nothing has moved despite several rounds of discussions as both sides have differed over granting 12 percent freehold rights to the builder, among other issues.