Technopark to get more investment

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM, INDIA: The technology destination in the Kerala capital is to see more investment soon as the Technopark is all set to leap frog into a Phase-III expansion, starting Thursday.

The Phase-III of the Thiruvananthapuram Technopark would involve private participation and is being mulled over as a special economic zone in the IT and ITeS space. The expansion would be undertaken on an area of 92 acres and would incur a cost of more than Rs 3500 crore, Technopark sources said.

The Phase-III of Technopark is expected to be completed in year 2012.

V S Achuthanandan, Chief Minister of Kerala, will formally open the third phase of expansion of Technopark on September 4. The inauguration will mark the commencement of construction of the new 110 KV sub-station at a cost of Rs. 10 crore.

The work on the sub station will be undertaken by power distribution and transmission giant Asea Brown Boveri and funding for the project would come in from South Indian Bank. The third phase promises to provide employment opportunities to over 35,000 professionals when completed.

According to R K Nair, CEO, Technopark, “This is a giant step towards our aim in putting Kerala among the top 5 IT destinations in the country by 2012.”

Technopark, set up in July 1990, with the objective of creating the infrastructure and providing support required by hi-technology IT-ITeS companies in Kerala, was formally dedicated to the nation by the then Prime Minister P V Narasimha Rao.

The Technopark has grown to be the largest IT Park in the country with 150 nationally and internationally reputed companies having set up shop in 4 million sq.ft.of  built-up area and over 20,000 IT-ITeS professionals employed directly.

The first phase is expected to provide additional employment opportunities for 15,000 professionals when the Special Economic Zone campuses of Tata Consultancy Services, IBS Software Solutions and buildings of Aushim Soft, Tata Elxsi, NeST and Case Consult are fully operational. 

The second phase will provide employment to 30,000 professionals by Infosys Technologies and UST Global when their campuses go on stream.  The first building of Infosys Technologies is expected to be operational by March 2009 in this campus.

The third phase 92 acres will provide employment opportunity to 35,000 professionals when it is fully ready. 

It is expected by 2012, with these three phases fully operational, Technopark will provide direct employment opportunities to 100,000 IT-ITeS professionals and 400,000 indirectly.

The major companies currently in the campus include Tata Consultancy Services, Infosys Technologies, Toonz Animation, Ernst & Young, Mckinsey & Co, Allianz Cornhill, Collabera, RM Educational Software, Alamy Images, Kanoo Group, Saudi Engineering Group, and home grown companies like UST Global, IBS Software Solutions, NeST, SunTec, Accentia Technologies and Seaview Support Systems.