THIRUVANATHAPURAM: The State Capital could soon boast of having one of the most intelligent IT campuses in the country by next year as UST Global ties up with Cisco Services, a world leader in network solutions, for developing its upcoming campus at the Technopark here as a Smart Campus.
To be completed in three phases, the first phase of the project, with an area of 7.4 lakh square feet, would come into existence by the end of next year with Cisco’s Smart + Connected Real Estate solutions, UST Global president Joe Nalkara and managing director of Asia Pacific Vertical Enterprise Practice of Cisco Service G B Kumar said at a joint news conference here on Monday.
The UST Global’s Smart Campus would open the doors for 35,000 jobs, including 7,500 in the initial phase. UST Global is at present employing nearly 4,000 personnel in its existing facility at Technopark, which is the highest number of employment provided by UST in any location. This status would be retained for Thiruvananthapuram once the new campus comes up, said Joe.
‘’In the Smart Campus, our aim is to integrate and automate all the systems in the campus so as to optimise the utilisation of the resources and thereby enhance the operational efficiency at the best costs. There would be nearly 40-percent energy saving, 30-percent operational cost saving and 54-percent saving in cabling cost. At present, there is no campus in the country that could deliver such intelligent resource management,” said Kumar.
Energy management, centralised monitoring and control of elevators, security solutions, smart card services and automated car parking form part of the Smart+ Connected Real Estate solution. ‘’We hope to provide a better working atmosphere to our professionals in the upcoming Smart Campus through the intelligent solutions to be offered by Cisco and thereby enhance their productivity,’’ said Joe.
The new campus is coming up in an area of 36 acres and it would have five blocks. While three blocks would be for software, one would be for hospitality and the other one for sports and entertainment. The entire campus is expected to be commissioned in another five to six years.
The cost for the first phase would come to around Rs 200 crore and that for the entire campus would be two to three-folds more, Joe said.
Kumar said that Cisco was also in talks with many other leading groups in the country for setting up Smart Campuses.
trivandrum@expressbuzz.com