The Hindu : Kerala / Thiruvananthapuram News : JB Group joins race for IT park

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Mar 14, 2007
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Kerala

Kerala - Thiruvananthapuram

JB Group joins race for IT park

Staff Reporter

Company officials submit proposal to VS

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The JB Group of companies headquartered in Hong Kong has joined the race for setting up a Smart City IT Park project in Kochi, even while there are reports that discussions with the Dubai-based TECOM Group on the project are in the final stages.

The officials of the company submitted a proposal to Chief Minister V.S. Achuthanandan on Tuesday to set up an IT park with the most modern infrastructure in a 100-acre area near the Infopark at Kakkanad in Kochi within three years. The much-debated Smart City project is also being mooted around the same area.

Addressing a press conference here, the JB Group officials said they would be happy to set up their proposed IT park project in the Smart City Project area itself.

``Ours is demand-driven project proposal and we would not be averse to the idea of setting up the IT Park in another area provided there was demand for a second project.''

They said they proposed to the Chief Minister that the Group would be willing to take the 100 acres of land for the project on lease for 99 years, at the rate of Rs.85,000 a cent. So the total land cost would run into Rs.85 crore. The lease period could be extended on mutually agreeable terms to the Government and to the JB Group.

They said they offered to the Chief Minister that the State Government could have an equity participation of 26 per cent in the project.

Constructed area

Total constructed area of the proposed project would be about seven million square feet.

Out of that five million square feet would be used for setting up enterprises engaged in IT and IT-Enabled Services (ITES) sectors.

The remaining two million square feet would be utilised for setting up other amenities like residential facilities, hotels and environment-friendly projects. The project would have own sewage treatment facilities and captive power generation facilities.

According to them, the project was proposed to attract an investment of Rs.1,500 crore and provide employment opportunities to about 100,000 people.

They claimed that the Chief Minister had responded favourably to their proposal and had asked them to submit a detailed plan. `'We hope to meet the Chief Minister again with a detailed plan within a fortnight.''

JB Group's strategic partner KPDL ReGenesis, which executed several projects for the Group, will be implementing the proposed IT project in Kochi also, with total financial support from the Group. Gautam Kanjilal of the Infiniti Consulting Corporation Limited, subsidiary of the JB Group, Karthik Somaiah of Infiniti Consulting, Hardeep Dayal of ReGenesis and Shivjot Cheena of the ReGenesis were present at the press conference.

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