MEGAPROJECT: Technocity Trivandrum | 20 Mn Sq Ft SEZ

[Kannan46]

Hi All,
Some good news about IBS I saw today. Was eager to share with you.
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Australian airline to use Kerala's Technopark product
Thiruvananthapuram: Australia's second largest airline Virgin Blue, along with its sister carriers, will use aiRES, a passenger services system (PSS) developed by IBS Software Services located in Kerala's Technopark.

Exclusive marketers of aiRES, Cendant Travel Distribution Services, signed the agreement with the Virgin Blue Airlines, IBS Software Services said in a statement released Thursday.

Virgin Blue and its sister carriers currently operate a fleet of 51 modern Boeing 737 aircrafts flying to 22 destinations across metropolitan and regional Australia, as well as eight international destinations.

AiRES is built from the ground up on open systems technology and is designed to replace less flexible, more expensive legacy systems now common in the industry.

Chairman and managing director of IBS Group V.K. Mathews said they could be the only IT Company that has undertaken path-breaking initiatives to build new generation systems for all the areas of airline business - passenger services, cargo services and flight operations.
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We the Trivandrumites are really proud of IBS for all the great things you do.
Wish you all success in your endeavours.

[Ajaypp]

- Good news, Kannan. But please post all news of Technopark-based firms in the TP thread itself. We would like to keep this thread only for news of the Technocity project. Thanks in advance.

[Kannan46]

Originally Posted by Ajaypp

- Good news, Kannan. But please post all news of Technopark-based firms in the TP thread itself. We would like to keep this thread only for news of the Technocity project. Thanks in advance.

Dear Ajay,
I also knew that . But TP thread is closed.. I wonder if it can be revived as TP II
since a lot of things will be happening in coming months or years in TP itself.

Kannan

[Ajaypp]

- Kannan, the second part of the TP thread is already open in the Projects forum. It is called "Technopark, IT Park - Part II". Pls carry one there.

http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showthread.php?t=352143

Cheers,
Ajay

[sajk]

Do anyone think our CM has a very farsighted vision regarding kerala development. I wonder why 100% literate kerala couldn't find a better CM.

Smart City-like project in Kolkata
THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Even as the V S Achuthanandan-led LDF government in Kerala is finding it hard to take a decision on the proposed Smart City project in Kochi worth Rs 2,250 crore, his West Bengal counterpart, Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, has initiated negotiations with the Dubai Internet City (DIC) for setting up a similar project near the Salt Lake City in Kolkata. The first round of official discussions between the DIC and the West Bengal government was held on May 5 and 6 in Kolkata, at a time when the project got mired in controversies in Kerala and the CPM rank and file dubbed the proposal a fraud.

[sudheeshnairs]

Yes, he is better than any other politician you now find in Kerala. And he is fully supportive to IT industries, see Technopark thread II for details.

BTW regarding DIC see this first..

http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showpo...&postcount=187

Originally Posted by sajk

Do anyone think our CM has a very farsighted vision regarding kerala development. I wonder why 100% literate kerala couldn't find a better CM.

Smart City-like project in Kolkata
THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Even as the V S Achuthanandan-led LDF government in Kerala is finding it hard to take a decision on the proposed Smart City project in Kochi worth Rs 2,250 crore, his West Bengal counterpart, Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, has initiated negotiations with the Dubai Internet City (DIC) for setting up a similar project near the Salt Lake City in Kolkata. The first round of official discussions between the DIC and the West Bengal government was held on May 5 and 6 in Kolkata, at a time when the project got mired in controversies in Kerala and the CPM rank and file dubbed the proposal a fraud.

[Ajaypp]

Originally Posted by sajk

proposed Smart City project in Kochi worth Rs 2,250 crore

Lol, the "project cost" of Smart City seems to be escalating on its own. When last heard from Oommen Chandy, it was pegged at Rs 1500 Crores - without any business plan to back that up. Now in this report, it has magically escalated by 50%! In a few weeks, it will cross the GDP figure of India!

his West Bengal counterpart, Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, has initiated negotiations with the Dubai Internet City (DIC) for setting up a similar project near the Salt Lake City in Kolkata

.

It just says "initiated discussions" and the article starts off by saying "Smart City for Kolkata"! LOL. Also, the CPM and VS has opposed shady clauses like "free land", handover of Infopark and the useless penalty clause for shortfalls in job creation. Buddha would be more rigorous in negotiations than our man, Chandy and West Bengal with thousands of square kilometers of land can afford to dole out land to any Tom, Dick and Harry than land starved Kerala.

Btw, as we had decided, let's keep further political debates out of this thread. Thanks.

[Kannan46]

Is there any news item about Technocity. No body seems to talk about that.
Let us hope that activities will pick up in the next few weeks in not days.
Cheers!!!

[Ajaypp]

Yup, Kannan, we hope the work will pick up now that the new Govt. is in power. MVK is very interested in the project and has proposed that Trivandrum be made a "Knowledge City" of which Technocity, along with Technopark, will be a key component.

[sudheeshnairs]

Desi IT Corridor coming

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The ‘Techno City’ project conceived by the UDF government has now been redesigned into an ‘IT Corridor’ project. In the new proposal, there will be no participation of the multi-national investors.

Only Non-Resident Keralites will be allowed to participate in the project. The KSIDC would also make a significant investment in the project.

The Techno City will be made the first module of the 70-km IT Corridor project. The previous LDF government had also announced the setting up of an ‘IT Corridor’ from Kazhakkoottam to Kovalam.

According to the fresh proposal, the KSIDC would take the lead role in implementing ‘IT Corridor’ project - a vast geographic area stretching from Thiruvananthapuram to Kollam with an initial investment of Rs 500 crore.

The IT Corridor project would not come under IT Department. It will function under the Industries Department. According to sources, the new proposal has been submitted to the Industries Minister Elamaram Kareem. It will be discussed in the CPM before arriving at a final decision.

The details of the total volume of investment and the volume of equities for each of the participants are yet to be finalised.

For ‘Techno City’, the Technopark through government grant initially proposed the investment pattern as Rs 75 crore bank loan and Rs 25 crore as investment. It was proposed to invite leading private investors for setting up other facilities

http://www.newindpress.com/NewsItems...erala&Topic=0&

Only points of concern is the statement that mulitnational investors will not be entertained. Is it a 'hint' to Dubai Internet City?. Anyway hope Indian Cos like L&T or Raheja would be welcome.

Good thing is that it would be eventually expanding up to Kollam. Even now it is just like one urban sprawl.

[praanthan_chaannaan]

Originally Posted by sudheeshnairs

Desi IT Corridor coming



Only points of concern is the statement that mulitnational investors will not be entertained. Is it a 'hint' to Dubai Internet City?. Anyway hope Indian Cos like L&T or Raheja would be welcome.

Good thing is that it would be eventually expanding up to Kollam. Even now it is just like one urban sprawl.

Hmm.... you are right to be concerned. This sounds a bit wishy-washy. Expression of good intentions ain't gonna convince us, unless it is backed by a solid business plan. The Technocity was a solid goal. This IT corridor does not have any solidness to it. But I do hope that it reaches till Kollam. That will benefit a lot of people and the areas on both sides of the corridor.

But it looks like the DIC chaps are out and I am not really concerned, for I personally am uneasy about investors from Gulf region (even that Saudi group that was showing interest for Technocity).

I think we have enough money inside India, ready for investments. NRI investments schemes are also good. Plus as you pointed out, there are enough biggies in India, who can carry this scheme out with flair.

[sudheeshnairs]

Right PC, I think this IT corridor concept of LDF is just to be different from UDF. Yes, IT corridor may not be having a solid business plan, but surely Technocity has. And it is made clear that 'Technocity' would be the first module of the IT corridor. So we have a sigh of relief that LDF is not ditching it on account of it being mooted by UDF.

Anyway Technocity gets green signal, whether it expands to an IT corridor up to Kollam is another issue.

Originally Posted by praanthan_chaannaan

Hmm.... you are right to be concerned. This sounds a bit wishy-washy. Expression of good intentions ain't gonna convince us, unless it is backed by a solid business plan. The Technocity was a solid goal. This IT corridor does not have any solidness to it. But I do hope that it reaches till Kollam. That will benefit a lot of people and the areas on both sides of the corridor.

But it looks like the DIC chaps are out and I am not really concerned, for I personally am uneasy about investors from Gulf region (even that Saudi group that was showing interest for Technocity).

I think we have enough money inside India, ready for investments. NRI investments schemes are also good. Plus as you pointed out, there are enough biggies in India, who can carry this scheme out with flair.

[Ajaypp]

New IT policy soon

Special Correspondent

To exploit the sector's role in job generation and economic development

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The Government will come out with a new IT/ITES policy soon for exploiting the sector's critical role as an enabler of employment generation and economic development of the State.

Governor R.L. Bhatia, who announced this in his address to the Assembly on Friday, said that the previous Government failed in sustaining the tempo of investment for developing infrastructure in the information technology sector in the State.

The present Government would fill this gap by augmenting both public and private investment in the sector. The State's inherent strength of quality manpower and connectivity infrastructure would be fully leveraged to create two lakh direct jobs in the IT, ITES and BPO sectors in the next five years.

The establishment of capabilities in the production and hardware sectors would be encouraged instead of depending on the ITES sector alone.

Looks like these guys atleast have some focus. Btw, it seems the land acquisition procedures for the 500 acres of Technocity seem to be proceedly quietly in the background.

[Kannan46]

I am really saddened by the fact that multinationals will not make entry into technocity or the proposed IT corridor. The benefit of biggies like Oracle, IBM or Yahoo is that it will increase the attraction of tvm as an international investment center, improve international business tours and bring a lot of our professionals back to their home state.
Hope that our govt will watch closely what WB is doing and what is happening in the neighboring states.

Cheers!!!

[sudheeshnairs]

Originally Posted by Kannan46

I am really saddened by the fact that multinationals will not make entry into technocity or the proposed IT corridor. The benefit of biggies like Oracle, IBM or Yahoo is that it will increase the attraction of tvm as an international investment center, improve international business tours and bring a lot of our professionals back to their home state.
Hope that our govt will watch closely what WB is doing and what is happening in the neighboring states.

Cheers!!!

Kannan, you got it wrong.

It is regarding setting up the infra, and not the companies.

BTW pls dont break your head at this moment, let things unwind on its own. And be rest assured that here there are people amongst us who could take up things directly with the decision makers.

[praanthan_chaannaan]

adding on to what Sudheesh said, the biggies (you listed and did not list) will increasingly go to places where they believe their employees can lead a higher quality of life. After all, in IT, employee satisfaction is key to productivity.

Also with the increase in broadband penetration, big office parks in big cities which are built by big MNC firms, **might** gradually be replaced by smaller business centers spread over a larger geographical area and even more important, a lot of IT folks will prefer "working from home offices".

That way, employees have an option of staying at a place which they prefer, rather than uprooting themselves and their family to a big city and its dependant chaos.

So big firms not being present physically, do not make a big difference in this probable distributed model of the future. Rather, attract the best talent and people by providing them a great place to live or raise a family. And it helps that Trivandrum is one of the best places in India to live, without doubt (infrastructure, international air-connectivity, cultural openness, educational institutions, research institutions, leisure/recreational avenues etc).

[Ajaypp]

- well, put PC. This decentralisation would go a long way in decongesting our cities, and give the sheikhs some troubled nights since fuel consumption for commuting will come down.

[sudheeshnairs]

20 crores allotted in the state budget for Technocity. This is for the preliminary expenses.

http://www.hindu.com/2006/06/24/stor...2422510300.htm

[Ajaypp]

- Great news there, hope to see more details soon. I guess this amount will be used for the acquisition of land for Technocity.

[Ajaypp]

Kerala plans to float industrial infrastructure development co

Our Bureau

Public-private enterprise to take up major projects

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The new company will engage itself in acquiring land, building infrastructure and leasing the facility to new enterprises.
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The State Government is planning to float an industrial infrastructure development company to take up major infrastructure projects in the sector, the State Industries Minister, Mr Elamaram Kareem, has said.

The company will be a public-private enterprise in the model of Cochin International Airport Ltd and the Government will have a maximum stake of 26 per cent through its agencies such as Kinfra and Kerala State Industries Development Corporation. The remaining shares will be given to public and the company will be registered by September-end, he said at a press meet.

The Minister, who was here to attend a State-level meeting of the cluster development programme, told newspersons that the Government would also appoint a consultant to advise it for the formation of the new company. The capital requirements for the projects to be taken up, investment pattern etc will be decided by the consultant.

Industrialists' meet

The Industries Department is also planning to hold a meeting of major industrialists in Kochi on July 29 to get their views on the nature and business of the new company, he said.

The Government, he said, had proposed to develop large industrial parks by acquiring 500-3,000 acres in the State. It had already identified two areas: one near the national highway between Kollam and Thiruvananthapuram for a high tech industrial park and another in northern Kerala. The focus in the industrial parks would be on the manufacturing sector.

http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/...1402781900.htm

- I guess this means Technocity? Now that money has been allocated in the budget and a SPV is being floated, I hope the project picks up pace.