CHENNAI: Chief Minister MK Stalin on Tuesday inaugurated the Phase-I of CapitaLand Investment Limited’s (CLI) International Tech Park, which is considered to be the first park to be certified by the Indian Green Building Council (IGBC) as ‘Net Zero’, a rating for energy efficiency, water conservation and waste management.
Located along Chennai’s newest and fastest growing IT corridors, the 5 million square foot business park will offer four Grade A office blocks with the capacity to house over 50,000 IT service professionals. To date, CLI has invested around Singapore dollars 750 million - 800 million (approx US$ 548 million to 584 million) in Chennai and it has plans to invest another USD 500 million (USD 365 million) in the next five years across multiple asset classes, with a special focus on IT parks, logistics and data centres.
Stalin said the state is setting up sector-specific industrial parks with world-class infrastructure to attract investments. “Accordingly, we planned research and development projects, innovation projects and skill development centres to woo investments,” Stalin said.
Industries Minister TRB Rajaa said, “CapitaLand, formerly Ascendas, has been Tamil Nadu’s trusted partner for two decades, powering the knowledge economy and providing the infrastructure for several IT and ITES companies. We have attracted some of the largest global organisations to our state to set up their offices, global capability centres and research and development centres, and projects such as these are crucial to the state meeting investors’ rapidly growing high-quality office space demands”.
Over the past two years, the number of Global Competence Centers and Global Capability Centers for research and development has increased. “CLI has witnessed Tamil Nadu’s transformation over the last 18 years since we entered Chennai, and the city is now among the fastest-growing markets within India for CLI where we have the most diversified portfolio of assets. We hope to further contribute to the government’s efforts in enhancing the state’s infrastructure,” said Sanjeev Dasgupta, chief executive officer of CLI India.