THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Giving a fillip to Kerala’s investment-friendly policies, a 57-lakh sq ft Downtown Technopark - the largest development project in the state - was launched by Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan on Friday.
The Chief Minister said the project contributes to the government’s plan to expand the IT park space in Kerala from 1.3 crore sq ft to 2.3 crore sq ft and to provide 2.5 lakh direct jobs, besides increasing software exports and attracting investors to the state by 2020.
“As a priority sector, the government is giving emphasis on creating a necessary social milieu and basic infrastructure in the IT sector, aimed at increasing software exports and attracting investors,” Pinarayi said. The `1,500-crore project envisages construction of Embassy Taurus TechZone, a 33-lakh sq ft IT space, Taurus Zentrum, a 12-lakh sq ft retail space, a 315-room serviced apartment Asset Taurus Identity and a 200-room business hotel.
The entire project will come up in 20 acres on the Phase III campus of Technopark. Of the 20 acres, 12.43 acres will be exclusively for office space and the remaining for retail, hotel and serviced apartments.
“The future of the state’s development lies in the IT field, in the knowledge industry; both education and research and in the kinds of environmentally friendly things we are well known for, particularly tourism and wellness, which are both subsets of the hospitality industry. All of these things fit together extremely well,” said Shashi Tharoor MP.
Leading SEZ builder Embassy Group is associating with the Boston-headquartered Taurus Investment Holdings and Asset Homes 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 20 acres, 12.43 acres is under the Special Economic Zone (SEZ) and 7.57 acres is non-SEZ.
Incubation facility to come up in six months
While work on the Downtown Technopark project progresses, companies that have signed up will be provided with incubation facility with ‘Keystone’ - a first-of-its-kind prefabricated structure in Kerala - boasting a built-up area of 62,500 sq ft in under six months. The shopping-cum-entertainment centre will host Cinepolis which will set up Kerala’s largest multiplex with 15 cinema screens, including the state’s first IMAX movie screen. Asset Homes’ 315 units of serviced residences will include cost-effective 100 sq ft and 300 sq ft apartments enabling access to quality housing for bach-elor tech-employees at Technopark.