Kerala Technopark emerges largest IT Park in India

Thiruvananthapuram, Feb 22 (UNI) The Technopark here emerged as the largest Information Technology Park in the country with Kerala Chief Minister V S Achuthanandan today inaugurating 'Tejaswini,' a 850,000 sq ft new building, taking its total built-up area to 3.2 million sq ft.

'Tejaswini' is the seventh building in Technopark, situated 12 km from here, which houses 120 nationally and internationally reputed companies with over 15,000 IT/ITES professionals employed directly.

Official sources said the new addition had made Technopark the largest IT Park in the country. Expansion to another 600 acres was already underway.

Technopark accommodates six other building -- Nila, Bhavani, Gayatri, Chandragiri, Pampa and Periyar in addition to the own buildings constructed by IT Cos.

Dedicating the Park to nation, the Chief Minister said the state government would take every effort to improve the infrastructure facility and provide maximum possible support for the growth of IT industry.

He said the state was blessed with rich human resource, good quality of life and world class infrastructure facilities at reasonable cost.

NASSCOM President Kiran Karnik, who was the Guest of Honour at the function, urged the government to aim for converting Kerala into a fully e-literate state by 2010 or even earlier. He also emphasized on bringing about high-speed connectivity between IT destinations like Kochi and Thiruvananthapuram.

Mr Karnik commented on the immense job opportunities created by the IT industry, which had generated direct employment to around 1.5 million people and indirect employment to around six million.

The IT exports would touch 47 billion US Dollar mark this year, registering a ten fold increase compared to figures recorded ten years ago.

UNI