THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Top officials of the Technopark and the departments for Land Revenue and Information Technology met here on Tuesday to remove the bottlenecks in the Phase III and Phase IV expansion programmes of the Technopark.

The State Budget had earmarked Rs.20 crores for land acquisition for Technopark.

The Government wants to speed up the proceedings to ensure that all new companies approaching it with investment proposals get land and other facilities without having to wait, an official said.

Land already acquired under the Phase III expansion programme has been allotted to certain companies such as the Infosys and the US Technologies. Some of these companies are yet to start construction work at the sites allotted. If they fail to start the work within the time stipulated when the allotment was made, the Government proposes to look into the claims of applicants who are already in the queue, the official said.

Fresh land acquisition proposed under Phase III Technopark expansion involves displacement for only six families. They have all agreed to the rehabilitation proposal placed before them. The meeting was told that the Technopark would immediately ensure that they were comfortably relocated.

Phase IV Technopark expansion envisages the acquisition of 500 acres (just over 200 hectares) of land at Mangalapuram, about seven kilometres to the north of the Technopark Campus.

The Housing and Urban Development Corporation and a few nationalised banks have indicated their interest in financing this expansion programme, which will be called the `Technocity.'

Additional Chief Secretary John Mathai told the meeting that 27 Revenue officials would be specially assigned to handle the responsibilities of acquiring land for Technocity.

The Kerala State Industrial Development Corporation was given the task of preparing a detailed project proposal for `Technocity' some time back, but it is yet to complete the work.

The `Technocity' is envisaged as a self-contained territory for IT and ITES companies with good schools and hospitals, commercial places and residential and recreational facilities for the families of those working there.

Phase I of the Technopark Project has so far provided jobs to 12,000 IT professionals. Phase II and Phase III would have facilities to provide employment to an estimated 60,000 professionals and Phase IV, approximately 1 lakh professionals.

The IT Department is targeting to make all these possible over the next five years, the official said.

Printer friendly page  
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail