Technopark - India's Greenest and Biggest IT Park

[Ajaypp]

Let's take a look at a set of long-distance shots from the rooftop of Bhavani......

In this shot, looking out towards South-West, we can see a complex of buildings in the background, which I believe are part of the College of Engineering, Trivandrum (CET). This 66-year old institution is the top engineering institute in Kerala and one of the best in India. It sprawls over a lush green, 150 acre campus near Sreekariyam. It attracts the best students from the state entrance examination and provides top-class facilities, faculty and placement. Co.s like Google, ABB, Toshiba, Solectron and so on recruit students here along with Indian majors like CTS, Infosys, TCS, Wipro and so on.

It is currenly being upgraded under the prestigious Technical Education Quality Improvement Programme (TEQIP) of the World Bank, which is meant for the top-20 engineering colleges of the country. CET, the only one selected in Kerala along with the state's REC, will receive over Rs 150 crores of funding. The other engineering colleges in the state will soon be affiliated under CET, which is being made academically autonomous. CET is one of the many major institutions in the R&D and high-tech educational cluster around Technopark.

Nice to see my alma mater goin great guns...

[Ajaypp]

Continuing in a counter-clockwise direction, we look out at the core area of the city. We see a large number of high-rises in the distance as well the bulk of Mukkunnimala in the background. The sprawl of buildings would be about 10-15 Kms away, and the high terrain in between hides most of them.
The towering aerial in the middle is the AM transmission tower of All-India Radio located at Kulathoor, close to CET. AIR has another station at Vazhuthacaud which contains the main studio complex and the FM transmission centre. Trivandrum's second FM station, at the DC Media School - the first campus station in India - is coming up at the Kinfra Film and Video Park, near Technopark. Another private channel is also due to commence transmission shortly!

[drwho]

nice pics Ajaypp

[Ajaypp]

We have just crossed 5000 views! Thank you all for your support and interest. Stay tuned! Thanks DrWho!

[sudheeshnairs]

This photo I took in 2002. IT Kerala 2002 Expo was coinciding with the inauguration of 'Bhavani'

[Jai]

It's incredible how lush Trivandrum is

[Ajaypp]

@ Jai - Yup, it's one of the lushest cities of its size in India. Here is another eye-pleasing, greenery filled frame. Towards the right we can see the campus complex of Mar Ivanios College and associated facilities. At the centre of the frame we can see the Doordarshan Kendra perched on a hill at Kudapanakunne. The Rs 18 crore Civil Station is coming up nearby.

[sudheeshnairs]

Atrium of the 4.5 lakh sft 8 storeyed NILA..

NILA has 5 restaurants, two of them are in this atrium.

This is the first floor. Ground Floor houses banks like Indusind Bank, ATMs, Three restaurants, Technopark Business Incubation centers (T-BIC), Project wing of Indian Institute of Information Technology & Management -Kerala (IIITMK) etc.

The Pyramid shaped glass structure provides natural lighting for the Ground Floor central walkway

[Ajaypp]

@ Sudheesh - Awesome pix, buddy! Nila has an amazing atrium, a real plaza insider a building - greenery, open spaces, restaurants - it's all there. Bhavani, its bigger sister, is designed with a landscaped atrium with pools and gardens, but I still like Nila's atrium better, with all the people there, especially during breaks. Wonder what Thejaswini's atrium will be like?

[Ajaypp]

Nila's biggest tenant, US Technology, has big plans meanwhile. They plan to expand to 10,000 by 2007 and to 25,000 by about 2010!!! That's from the present 2,800. US Tech plans to take over almost the whole of the 500,000 sft Bhavani as well as a significant portion of the 600,000 sft Thejaswini. In addition to this, they are planning to start construction soon on their 36 acre campus, which is part of Technopark Phase II, along with the Infy campus.

[Ajaypp]

The Kerala PWD Minister, Dr. Muneer, recently announced that NH-47 Bypass at Trivandrum, which is the proposed IT Corridor, will be four-laned shortly under NHDP-IV. Tenders would be called in a few weeks' time. Upgradation is already going on under the Model Roads Programme of GoK.

[sudheeshnairs]

Companies like IBS, Allianz Cornhill, Sherston etc occupy space in Chandragiri also.

[sudheeshnairs]

[sudheeshnairs]

[Ajaypp]

Great pix there Sudheesh! Need more interiors here.......

[Ajaypp]

In the distance we can see one of the many buildings of the sprawling Karyavattom campus of Kerala University. The University has many departments spread over 400 acres of lush green campus.

[vkv]

Mid-East firms queue up for Kerala's Technopark

Indo-Asian News Service

Thiruvananthapuram, October 17, 2005


Close to a dozen IT companies based in the Middle East are in talks with authorities in Kerela for space at the incubation centre in Technopark, which is home to many leading tech firms.

"We had an excellent response at the recent GITEX 2005, the premier IT exhibition that was held in Dubai last month. After screening inquiries, we now have a dozen firms asking for space at our incubation centre," VK Jayakumar, acting CEO of Technopark said.

The incubation centre began at the Technopark campus two years ago. Companies preparing for large-scale investment in IT were given a bit of space to run a virtual office to have a feel of whether they could actually be successful.

"We have designed three different modules. The smallest is a four-seat office, then there are eight-seat and 16-seat ones. The four-seat one, which has 200 square feet of space, is for a monthly rent of Rs 10,000 ($220) for 10 hours of operations (a day)," said Jayakumar.

"The only thing the company has to bear is the cost of the internet service provider. The rest including electricity, security and reception are provided by us."

Today there are 19 companies working in the incubation centre.

Jayakumar said firms could rent space at the incubation centre for one year, after which they would have to move out.

"In exceptional cases we give an extension of six months. Right now we don't have any space at all. So we are now planning to work out new space to accommodate the fresh inquiries from the Middle East," he said.

Currently the Technopark's entire built-up space of 1.5 million square feet is occupied by 86 companies that employ close to 10,000 people.

Kerala Chief Minister Oommen Chandy said his government had decided to set up a new Techno City over an area of 500 acres since all the space at Technopark was booked even as there were many inquires from companies. The Techno City will be located about five kilometres from the Technopark campus.

"Several companies have expressed their willingness to invest in the Techno City but we are still working on the project ," said Chandy.

[vkv]

New Portal For Automobiles Launched
by S Karat at 07:48AM (EDT) on September 20, 2005 | Permanent Link | Cosmos
Indiacar.net: Another portal for automobiles? Yes, Autoindia.com is a new portal for the Indian vehicle buyers, manufacturers, dealers, financiers and insurers, launched by a team of software professionals from Trivandrum.
The website was formally logged in by Union Power Minister P M Sayeed, and it offers a one-stop service on all areas of the automobile sector, including buying of new and used cars, motorcycles and scooters. Autoindia.com is headquartered at Technopark at Thiruvananthapuram in Kerala. The website, with a Rs 10 million investment and carrying over 500 pages of details besides links to pertinent portals, recorded about 27,000 hits within 24 hours of its launch on Friday afternoon, its Managing Director Binu T G said.
There is already an auto site called Automartindia.com. Let's see how this plays out.

[sudheeshnairs]

[sudheeshnairs]