The total space occupied by the IT industry in the State has increased by 52.44 lakh sq ft in the period from 2016-21, with 292 companies launching operations, Chief Minister Pianrayi Vijayan told the Assembly on Wednesday.
As many as 30,950 jobs were created through this. In the next five years, the IT space in the State will be increased by 71.22 lakh sq ft, he said.
He said that most of the IT parks are coming up in cities with proper air connectivity. Hence, Kannur too can be considered for future development as an IT hub.
To a question on the work progress of Kerala Fibre Optic Network (K-FON), he said that the COVID-19 pandemic had slowed down the implementation of the project to a small extent. However, the second phase is expected to be completed soon.
As of now, 7,389 government offices have been connected through the optic fibre network. The survey for 30,000 offices and 35,000 kilometres of optic fibre cable have been completed. The work on the network operations centre is progressing, he said.