By Express News Service

KOCHI: Malayali business tycoon MA. Yusuff Ali has announced Rs 1000 crore investment in Kozhikode to set up an international convention centre cum shopping mall and a global hotel, which would provide jobs for 3000 people.

Talking to reporters in Dubai, Yusuff Ali, the 19th richest Indian as per Forbes, said the work on the mega project will commence within three months, and he hoped to open the convention centre-shopping mall-hotel within 28 months.

The decision comes after a request by Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan after the Lulu Group skipped the Kozhikode investment while mentioning its forthcoming projects in the state during the inauguration of Lulu Group's Bolgatty International Convention Centre in Kochi recently, he said.

"(Honourable) CM Pinarayi Vijayan asked what happened to our plans to the Convention Centre in Kozhikode. There had been a prolonged delay in getting the required approvals for the Kozhikode project, and hence we decided not to pursue it. But, the CM assured us all the support, and got us all the approvals," he said. Some of the ongoing projects by the $7.4 billion (revenue) Lulu Group in Kerala include the Cyber Tower at Infopark, Kakkanad, which will house 10,000 software engineers; the establishment of a shopping mall at Thiruvananthapuram and the expansion of the existing convention centre at Thrissur.

This is part of the UAE-based group's Rs 13,000 crore investments across the country, which also include a shopping mall in Lucknow; hotel, convention centre and mall in Visakhapatnam; a shopping mall in Hyderabad and food processing centres in Telangana. Last month, Lulu Group opened Rs 1800-crore hotel-cum-convention centre at the Bolgatty Island, which is being managed by the Hyatt Hotels and Resorts.