Kerala software park land acquisition complete

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM - The Kerala government Monday said all formalities for acquisition of the remaining 245.89 acres for the development of Technocity, the next phase of Technopark software park near here, has been completed.

With this, Technopark’s total area will spread across 451 acres, which includes not just space for IT-ITES firms but also residential, commercial, hospitality, medical and educational facilities to make it a complete IT city.

The project is planned as a satellite city that would not strain the resources and infrastructure of the state capital.

“In addition to IT, other focus areas will be biotechnology, nanotechnology, high-end manufacturing and also R&D,” said Ajay Kumar, principal secretary in the IT department.

“The entire project will be developed through multiple special purpose vehicles (SPVs) in association with leading developers. It will create 50,000 direct employment opportunities and indirect employment for about 200,000 people when complete.”

Technopark chief executive Mervin Alexander said the government has already sanctioned widening and strengthening of the approach road to Technocity.

“KSERC (Kerala State Electricity Regulatory Commission) given the power approval. We have submitted the project report for loan and hope to process it at the earliest,” said Alexander.

Technopark is putting up a building with a built-up space of about one million square feet at a cost of about Rs.230 crore. The contract has been awarded to Larson and Toubro for completion in about 20 months and would be operational by mid-2011.

Technopark has also started the process of land allotment for the third phase of the project.