more-in Kochi: When it comes to Information Technology, Kochi has emerged as the most favoured destination in the State, offering a bouquet of facilities both for well established companies as for the budding startups looking to go up the ladder. From branded premium space to plug-and-play shells, globally reputed knowledge township to special economic zone and technology incubators to fablabs, the city has everything going for it to further cement its place as a pre-eminent IT destination in the State. Leading the pack is Infopark, the State government’s premier IT park, which has emerged as the de facto brand for Kochi IT. After exhausting the entire 100 acres allocated for its first phase, it is now focusing its attention on developing the second phase and has set a blistering pace with nearly 90% of the 160 acres already been allocated. Infopark set the tone for the second phase as well by commissioning the first IT building, ‘Jyothirmaya’, spread over four lakh sq ft in nine floors in January this year. Out of the 15 companies that have been allocated space, seven have already started operations, while discussions are on with more companies. The second phase already has a campus of IT major Cognizant, while Muthoot operates a school. Land has been allocated to Infopark’s co-developers — Trans Asia, UST Global, Muthoot, Kosamattam Builders, Claysys Infrastructure, Media Systems, Caspian Techparks, PI Data Centre, and Padiyath Innovation World — and only around 20 to 22 acres remain now. When the entire space is fully developed by 2020, Infopark Phase-II will have 8 million sq ft generating around 80,000 jobs. Meanwhile, Infopark is racing towards the target of 7 million sq ft in its first phase on 100 acres, thanks to the tremendous year-on-year growth rate of 30 to 35% in the last 10 years, whereas IT parks normally take between 15 and 20 years to achieve their full potential. Infopark expects to generate anywhere between 50,000 and 55,000 jobs once the first phase is completed. It already has 6 million sq ft housing 135 companies employing over 30,000 people. The entire land has been allocated, and the ongoing constructions are likely to be completed in a couple of years. The construction of LuLu Group’s new building of 1.40 million sq ft is likely to be completed by the end of this year, while Brigade’s second tower of 3.50 lakh sq ft may be finished next year. IBS has laid the foundation for its 5 lakh sq ft facility, while Geon Air, a co-developer, has been allocated 2.60 acres. Infopark got off the block with the commissioning of its first building, ‘Vismaya’, with 2.38 lakh sq ft space. This was followed by two more buildings — ‘Athulya’ and ‘Tapsya’ — with 5.50 lakh sq ft and 1.25 lakh sq ft respectively. IT giants Cognizant, Tata Consultancy Services, and Wipro have their own campuses in the first phase in addition to the facilities of co-developers Brigade, LuLu, and Carnival. In between, Infopark which adopted a hub-and-spoke method of developing IT infrastructure, set up two spokes at Koratty and Cherthala. Both the spokes have one building each of 3.30 lakh sq ft and 2.40 lakh sq ft respectively. Infopark is now waiting for both these buildings to be fully occupied before drawing up the future development plans of spokes.

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