THIRUVANANTHAPURAM:
Plans are afoot to increase the IT parks space in Kerala from 1.3 crore square feet to 2.3 crore square feet, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan today said, while inaugurating the much-anticipated Rs 1,500-crore Taurus Downtown Trivandrum project coming up at Technopark.
Speaking in the presence of Prof Lorenz Reibling, Chairman, Taurus, the Chief Minister said here that such a massive expansion in the IT parks space would enable creation of 2.5 lakh direct jobs besides increasing software export and attracting investors to the state.
“As a priority sector, the government is giving emphasis on creating a necessary social milieu and basic infrastructure in the IT sector, aiming at increasing software export and attract investors,” Vijayan said.
The phase-I of Downtown Trivandrum project will be completed by 2020, he said, and also unveiled the model of the project on the occasion. The Rs 1,500-crore project envisages construction of Embassy Taurus TechZone, a 33–lakh square feet IT space, Taurus Zentrum, a 12-lakh square feet retail space, 315-room service apartment Asset Taurus Identity and a 200-room business hotel.
The total built-up area of the project is 57 lakh square feet. Entire project will come up in 20 acres in phase III campus of Technopark. Of the total 20 acres, 12.43 acres will be exclusively for office space and remaining for retail, hotel and serviced apartments.
Leading SEZ builder Embassy Group is associating with Boston-headquartered Taurus Investment Holdings for the project. The office space will have plug-and-play facilities for startups and small businesses. On completion, it can bring direct employment to 35,000 and indirect employment to another 75,000.
Out of the 22.16 acres, 12.43 acres is under the Special Economic Zone (SEZ) and 9.73 acres in the non-SEZ.
Dr Shashi Tharoor MP, Thiruvananthapuram; V.K. Prashanth, Mayor, Corporation, Thiruvananthapuram; M Sivasankar, IT Secretary, Government of Kerala; Hrishikesh Nair, CEO, Technopark; Ajay Prasad, Country Managing Director, Taurus; Jitu Virwani, Chairman and Managing Director, Embassy Group; and V. Sunil Kumar, Founder and Managing Director, Asset Homes spoke at the function.
The biggest foreign investment in the construction sector of the IT field after Smart City, a tripartite lease agreement for the project was signed in the presence of the Chief Minister in March 2018.
