THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: While the IT sector is nose-diving in the country owing to the pandemic, Technopark is gearing up to expand by setting up office spaces outside the park. According to Technopark authorities, the demand for office spaces inside the park has not declined despite the pandemic. As many as 150 companies are on the waiting list to start offices inside the park. However, due to space constraints, Technopark is looking to establish office spaces in different locations under their brand name.
Technopark CEO Sasi Pilacheri Meethal told TNIE that the demand for office spaces forced the IT park to expand. He said efforts are on to find more workspaces on a rental basis. An office, spanning 20,000 sq ft in area, will be set up to cater to the immediate requests. Currently, there is a demand for 6,00,000 sq ft of office space.
“The companies had approached us for office spaces before the lockdown was imposed. Surprisingly, none of them backed out amid all the chaos. The plan is to give all these companies a Technopark-like experience with the same work atmosphere. All the facilities will be operated and managed directly by Technopark. Depending on the demand, we will buy more office spaces,” said Sasi.He said the new building coming up at Technocity has less than 2 lakh sq ft office space, which is inadequate. “The initial plan was to find out 50,000-sq-ft buildings, which didn’t workout. Hence, we decided to look for 20,000-sq-ft buildings,” he said.
He also said that the IT sector in the state is not nose-diving. “There may be a slowdown outside the state and abroad but not here. I held discussions with 25 medium companies, of which four companies claimed to have seen an increase in business by 10 to 15 per cent. Others too have been operating without incurring loss,” said Sasi. However, IT companies in transportation, hospitality and tourism sectors may be facing a slowdown due to the pandemic.
IT park to promote ‘Work Near Home’
In a bid to resolve work from home hurdles of techies, Technopark has come up with a concept called ‘Work Near Home’. The plan is to set up a 5,000-sq-ft office spaces across 100 towns in the state. “Our aim is to develop around 5,00,000 sq ft of office spaces as part of the initiative,” said Sasi.