Technocity: A hub of emerging tech in Kerala

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: No other city in the state can boast of a satellite IT city like the state capital. Technocity, which is being developed just 8 km away from Technopark, showcases something more to the whole country.

It is designed to be the hub of emerging technologies, which is said to be the future of IT when the current outsourcing model business becomes obsolete. The future technology hub, that has IT companies and research centres, will be involved in the digital transformation of people's lives envisioned in state’s IT policy.

The Technopark, the first electronic or IT park in the country, itself has grown over the years from phase 1 to phase 3, covering a total spread of over 700 acres. The decision to name the new project Technocity instead of Technopark phase 4 was made in order to differentiate the kind of work which will be done there. Latest technologies will offer a new kind of IT work.

Once operational, Technocity will be as big as the Technopark’s Phase 1, 2 and 3 combined, and will provide employment opportunity for over 1 lakh IT professionals. “The IT policy talks about a digital transformation in 3 spheres namely – digital citizenship, lifestyle and commerce. Technocity will help enable a digital Kerala,” said CEO of Kerala IT Parks Hrishikesh Nair. Former President Pranab Mukherjee declared Kerala as the first digital state of the country in February last year.

One portion of the project (300 acres) has been set aside for IT and IT-enabled services while the remaining 100 acres will be dedicated to set up a Knowledge City.

This is envisaged as the ‘Centre of Excellence’ (CoE) for future technologies like Cognitive Analytics, IoT, Cybersecurity, Block Chain, e-Mobility, and Space Science.

The Knowledge City will have an academic partner as well to promote new technologies. It will offer space for SMEs and startups to facilitate business collaboration.

Indian Institute of Information Technology and Management-Kerala (IIITM-K) will be the academic coordinator. International tie-ups with universities such as Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) are being envisaged. “By setting up centres of excellence to promote research and development, we hope to gain an early lead in emerging technologies and become a major hub in this area with a focus on technology-based products,” said Hrishikesh Nair.

The Technocity project was announced a few years back and the government has completed the acquisition of the 400 acres required for it at Mangalapuram. Like any other government project that involves large land acquisition, the Technocity project too faced delays. When the LDF government came into power, the work picked up. It was the first mandate given by the government to Hrishikesh Nair when he was made the CEO of Kerala IT Parks.

“The Knowledge City concept planned at the upcoming 400 acre Technocity is a big step envisioned towards bringing a paradigm shift in the socio economic thought process of Kerala,” said M Sivasankar, IT Secretary.

President Ram Nath Kovind will lay the foundation stone of the first IT building on October 27.  The signature building with a  built-up area of 2 lakh square feet is expected to be completed by 2019.

Leading IT organisations such as TCS, SunTec, IIITM-K and KASE have already leased land at the Technocity. Technopark Phase 1 is a 165 acre fully developed campus, with over 365 companies and appx 60,000 employees. Phase 2 is on 86 acres allocated to Infosys and UST Global. Phase3, a 92 acre campus is the latest development where the newly commissioned IT twin towers are situated.