Cyberpark bets on Kannur airport, Keralites desire to relocate

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: As Kerala’s third major government-sponsored tech park, Cyberpark, readies to get itself on stream, the park authorities are betting on the proposed new international airport in Kannur, and the desire of thousands of Keralite techies working in Karnataka and Tamil Nadu to relocate to their home town, to provide additional fillips to the park’s prospects.

Cyberpark will be the third IT hub in Kerala, following the Technopark in Thiruvananthapuram and Infopark at Kochi, both of which have been successful in leasing out ready-built space to domestic and international clients. Cyberpark will have its hub at Kozhikode, and two spokes at Kannur and Kasaragod.

Cyberpark CEO Binu A Pazhoor told ET that an international airport at Kannur will make the Cyberpark locations even more accessible, considering that there is already an international airport at Kozhikode. He said Keralite techies working in Bangalore, Mysore, Mangalore, Coimbatore and Chennai were keen to move into the Malabar region, and that some companies had already approached Cyberpark to explore the options of setting up base there.

The hub at Kozhikode is coming up over a 43-acre plot, while 25 acres have been acquired for the Kannur park and 100 acres for the facility at Kasaragod. Pazhoor said the first phase of the Kozhikode park involved an outlay of Rs 100 crore, and Rs 30 crore would be spent on basic infrastructure work at the Kannur park.

The first tenants of Cyberpark are likely to move into the park premises by the end of this year, and the park will host both small and medium enterprises as well as major players including multinational tech companies. Pazhoor said Cyberpark was in talks with private developers too, for co-development on the park premises.

Cyberpark is promoting itself as a virgin IT destination, with the high quality of life index in the Malabar region and a distinct cost arbitrage for companies and employees in comparison to bigger towns and cities in neighbouring states. It is also counting on the knowledge leveraging it can utilize, with the presence of an IIM and an NIT at Kozhikode.