KOCHI: NRI businessman and NORKARoots vicechairman M A Yusuff Ali is all set to build the country's biggest convention centre here.
Yusuff Ali told Express that the convention centre, a `600crore project, will come up at Vallarpadom. The work will begin by April. With this, the total investment by the Emke Group led by him in the state will be `2,100 crore.
The convention centre, which is coming up on 26 acres of land near the proposed Vallarpadom International Container Transshipment Terminal (ICTT) project, will have a seating capacity of 4,000. It will have 12 small conference halls, a star hotel in the complex besides the main centre.
The centre will be a suitable venue for foreign conferences, he said, adding that, it would boost the tourism sector in the state. "Conferences to be held here will be leisure trips to foreign candidates as they can visit and enjoy the backwaters at Alappuzha and Kumarakom," Yusuff Ali said.
He said his first project here, the biggest shopping mall in the country with an investment of `1,500 crore will start functioning by January 2012. The work on the project is on a fast phase. Yusuff Ali said he has got invitations from other states to start business establishments. However, his first priority is Kerala.
On the inauguration of Air India Express headquarters in Kochi, Ali, who is also a director of Air India Express, said the process had already started. The date of inauguration will be fixed after consulting Civil Aviation Minister Vayalar Ravi.