One lakh jobs in India soon

Infopark is now going on with its plan of creating one lakh software jobs in the country by 2020. The Kochi-headquartered government-owned IT infrastructure provider is set to retain the leadership it initially had when the state had founded Technopark in Thiruvananthapuram.

Over the last 11 years, Infopark has developed over 4.5 million square feet technology workspace and has attracted leading companies like TCS, Wipro, Cognizant Technology Solutions and UST Global. Spread over 100 acres, its campus houses more than 200 companies, which employ nearly 24,000 IT professionals. Apart from its hub at Kakkanad that includes phase I and II, Infopark has 3 satellite campuses - Kaloor, Thrissur and Cherthala.

"Phase I is definitely a big success. The entire built up area of the first phase is fully occupied and once the ongoing construction finishes by FY18, it will be able to create 70,000 job opportunities," said Hrishikesh Nair, CEO, Infopark.

Apart from the fully occupied buildings of Infopark, Leela Infopark and Lulu, the work of other buildings of TCS, Brigade Group, Lulu, IBS and Geon IT Park are going on within the phase I campus.

The phase II of Infopark is being developed at a cost of Rs 2,500 crore with IT companies or infrastructure developers like Cognizant, UST, Trans Asia, Muthoot Group, Media Systems, Claysys Technologies, Caspian Techparks and Padiyath Innovation as co-developers.

Compared to phase I, the second phase is targeting 80 lakh sq ft of built up area and 80,000 potential jobs by 2020, said Nair. "We can expect around 1 lakh jobs to be created by 2020," he added. And the marketing of phase II is already a success. "Before the inauguration itself, 60% of the land of phase II was fully sold out to co-developers. This is a positive sign of phase II being fully occupied," Nair said.

Fully completed, the phase II campus will be of 160 acre, with 102 acre as IT special economic zone. So far, 125 acres have been acquired by the government for the project. Project land is offered to co-developers on long-term lease of 90 years with a single window clearance mechanism to ensure statutory approvals within two weeks.