Kerala launches new IT complex, TechnoCity

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Land acquisition for the project was done at a cost of Rs 340 crore, funded by a consortium of banks led by Central Bank. State IT department officials expect the facility to be a trailblazer and generate 1lakh IT/ITES jobs directly. The facility was formally launched by chief minister VS Achuthanandan today.

State IT principal secretary Ajay Kumar said the entire project would come up as a satellite city to the state capital and that the development would be done through multiple special-purpose vehicles in association with leading developers. He said, besides IT the other focus areas would be biotechnology, nanotechnology, high-end manufacturing and R&D, and that there would be 10-15 million sq ft of IT business space at TechnoCity.

Technopark CEO Merwin Alexander said an investment of over Rs 6,000 crore was expected in the mega project, which was being developed on public-private partnership basis, and that the first phase of the project would be completed within three years.

Kochi-based Infopark CEO Siddhartha Bhattacharya said the launch of the TechnoCity, coupled with Infopark’s Phase II expansion plans and cyber parks coming up in Kozhikode and Kasaragod would make Kerala the preferred IT destination in the country within the next five years.

The Technopark here had applied for funding to the Japan International Co-operation Agency through the department of economic affairs, for Rs 170 crore towards infrastructure development of TechnoCity. The Kerala State IT Infrastructure company is the project developer.