Kerala software park to be expanded over 160 acres

CHENNAI - The second phase of softyware park Infopark in Kochi, which may be developed under a public-private partnership (PPP) model, will come up over 160 acres, said a top company official here Monday.

“We are getting into the second phase of Infopark’s expansion. The land will be with us by the end of this year. We may look at building the infrastructure on a PPP model,” said Infopark chief executive Siddhartha Bhattacharya.

He said it was still not decided whether the new park would be developed by Infopark or by the newly-promoted Kerala State IT Infrastructure Ltd.

Speaking about the existing Infopark, built over 102 acres, he said: “As of today we are full. In four and a half years, we got 9,000 people working in the IT park. We have already constructed 2.5 million square feet, and another two million square feet is under construction.”

According to him, the two million square feet is being developed by Infopark and co-developers like Larsen and Toubro, Wipro and Tata Consultancy.

“Infopark on its own will develop half a million square feet,” he said.

Maintaining that the downturn did not have any major impact on IT companies in Kerala, he added: “However, in order to assist small and medium-sized companies we have decided to defer 50 percent of the rent from units located in the park for a year.”