The stage is set for the ‘Technocity’ to take off, signaling the emergence of the state capital as a hub for emerging technologies. The IT policy 2017 of our Govt, envision a digital transformation in 3 spheres namely – Digital citizenship, Digital lifestyle and Digital commerce. The proposed Technocity will create a definite infrastructure for the transformation of the 100% Literate state to the 100% Digital state.
Technopark Trivandrum is the first Electronic / IT park in the country. Spread over 700 acres of land, the project has grown over 3 different phases by now. Phase 1 is a 165 acre fully developed campus, with over 365 companies and appx 60,000 employees. Phase 2 is 86 acres allocated to Infosys and UST Global. Phase3, a 92 acre campus is the latest development where the newly commissioned IT twin towers are situated. This building is India’s largest Govt IT building with 1million sq feet built up, to accommodate over 8000 people. A major FDI investment is also expected within Phase 3 for construction of a ‘walk to work down-town’ by the turn of this year. When the ongoing expansion plans are completed, Phase 1, 2 & 3 will employ over 100,000 people and hence Govt is looking at its 4th phase of expansion – Technocity.
Govt has completed the land acquisition proceedings for 400 acres of Technocity. Organisations like TCS, SunTec, IIITMk, KASE etc have already taken land for development. The project will have one portion devoted to IT/ ITeS companies and the other about 100 acres dedicated to a Knowledge City envisaged as a ‘centre of excellence’ (CoE) for future technologies like Cognitive analytics, Cybersecurity, Block chain, e-Mobility and Space science. The Knowledge city will have an academic partner as well to promote new technologies and will offer space for SMEs /start ups to facilitate business collaboration.
The construction of the first Govt. IT building in the Technocity campus is scheduled to begin soon. The signature building with a built- up area of 2 lakh sq. ft is expected to be completed by 2019 to accommodate the demand for more office space from a large number of small and medium companies located in Technopark. Basic infrastructure developments like road, power and water supply are done and the tender process for the IT building construction has been completed. The launch of Technocity along with the foundation stone for first Govt IT building is proposed to be on Oct 27th, 2017.
On the whole, ‘Technocity’ is expected to change the face of Kerala and transform it into the next destination for frontier Technologies. Declared as the first digital state, with the emergence of Technocity the state will confirm its presence as ‘THE digital state’ of our country.
