Kerala CM launches Rs 1,500 crore mega IT project in state

The Taurus Downtown project will come up at Technopark near Thiruvananthapuram.

Atom IT

Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan on Friday launched the Rs 1,500-crore Taurus Downtown project, which will be coming up at Technopark near Thiruvananthapuram and is expected to be completed by 2020.

The launch took place almost four years after this project was first cleared by the then Oommen Chandy government.

"As a priority sector, the government is giving emphasis on creating a necessary social milieu and basic infrastructure in the IT sector, aiming at increasing software export and attract investors," said Vijayan.

Leading SEZ builder Embassy Group is associating with Boston-headquartered Taurus Investment Holdings for the project.

The Rs 1,500-crore project envisages the construction of the Embassy Taurus TechZone, a 33 lakh square feet IT space, Taurus Zentrum, a 12 lakh square feet retail space, a 315-room service apartment Asset Taurus Identity and a 200-room business hotel.

The total built-up area of the project is 57 lakh square feet and the project will come up in 20 acres in phase-III campus of Technopark.

Of the total 20 acres, 12.43 acres will be exclusively for office space and the remaining for retail, hotel and service apartments.

Lorenz Reibling, Chairman, Taurus, was also present at the function.

The office space will also have plug-and-play facilities for startups and small businesses. On completion it is expected to bring direct employment to 35,000 people and indirect employment to another 75,000.

Out of the 22.16 acres, 12.43 acres is under the Special Economic Zone (SEZ) and 9.73 acres in the non-SEZ.

The state has also been boosting the startup ecosystem in the state over the years through Kerala Startup Mission (KSUM), the nodal agency of Government of Kerala for entrepreneurship development and incubation activities in the state.

KSUM is creating incubators for tech and other verticals. Dr Saji Gopinath, CEO of Kerala Startup Mission told TNM in an interview earlier this year that the state already houses a large electronic hardware incubator in Kochi, a bio-tech incubator in Kochi, and one mobile app accelerator set up in partnership with Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI) in Kozhikode. There are incubators in Trivandrum, Kannur, Kasargod and one coming up in Palakkad.

Also read: From student entrepreneurs to mature startups: Kerala’s transformation as a startup hub