Kerala's Kollam district is likely to get the first IT park of the state. According to M. Vasudevan, a senior Technopark official, the proposed district level IT park will be developed under the public-private partnership policy of the government of Kerala. Vasudevan further informed that the IT park is expected to be inaugurated by next month after chief minister V.S. Achuthanandan lays the foundation stone.  The IT infrastructure at Kundara near Kollam will be developed by the Technopark and real estate developers.

 

Last year in May, the Kerala government had announced that IT level parks will be developed under private-public partnership model in the 14 districts of the state. Districts like Kollam, Alappuzha, Thrissur, Kannur and Kasaragod will get the IT parks in the first phase of the project. The IT companies operating in Kerala are based either at the Technopark campus in Thiruvananthapuram or in the Infopark campus in Kochi.  

 

There are about 150 companies operating in the Technopark while 40 companies are in Infopark. The newly proposed district-level IT parks will help the IT industry expand the operations across the state of Kerala. While citing the reason behind choosing Kollam, Vasudevan said that the district has a good number of educational institutions and the rate of per square feet of land is cheaper than that in the Technopark campus. The state government will hold 51 percent stake in the district level parks and the rest will be with private and public companies.