The Hindu Business Line : Vying for `park'ing space

Technopark Thiruvananthapuram, which started operations in 1994, is one of India's first IT parks. Though a pioneer, Technopark's growth in its early years was steady rather than substantial. Over the past few years, however, the park has grown much faster and is today home to 115 companies with 15,000 employees.

By the end of 2007, Technopark will have at least 150 companies employing 20,000 people, says N. Radhakrishnan Nair, CEO, Technopark Thiruvananthapuram. And in three years, the total number of employees in the park should touch 35,000, he believes.

In an interview to eWorld, Nair talks about what makes Technopark an attractive destination for IT companies, its growth plans, and how it fosters entrepreneurship through T-Bic, its business incubation centre. Excerpts:

A few years ago, there was an impression that Technopark and Thiruvananthapuram are not suitable for IT companies. Has that image changed?

That is completely gone. Today, we have 1.5 million sq.ft of built-up space in this 186-acre campus, which, incidentally, is the largest IT park in the country. And the entire park is full. We don't have a single inch of space available or lying vacant. We inaugurated a new building, Thejaswini, on February 22, which is an 8.5 lakh-sq.ft building. Even before that building was completed, all the space was booked by IT companies. That speaks about the attractiveness of the location.

So what is it that attracts companies to Technopark?

A VIEW of the park - S. Gopakumar

We believe that Technopark offers at least about 40 per cent advantage in terms of the total cost of running operations compared to other locations such as Bangalore or Hyderabad. That is considering the cost of space, the power cost, the manpower cost and the cost of living — take the entire thing, the total cost may be about 40 per cent less than other places.

Second is the availability of manpower and the attrition rate. We are producing about 25,000 engineers from our colleges every year, and more than a lakh science and arts graduates.

The attrition rate we have experienced in Technopark as of today is somewhere around 7-8 per cent, which is much below the national average or what you see in other cities, where it is always in two-digit figures. That is a big advantage for companies.

Third is the quality of life in a place like Thiruvananthapuram. Wherever you live, you reach your office in Technopark in less than half-an-hour's drive. The availability of water, power, all that is pretty high. Probably the only thing that was missing so far in Thiruvananthapuram was the ambience. That is also changing very fast.

Could you take us through Technopark's expansion programme?

We have approval for two special economic zones (SEZs). One is coming up inside the existing 186-acre campus. We have marked 31 acres for setting it up. TCS and IBS are co-developers. They are setting up their own campuses within the SEZ.

We have also acquired another 86 acres of land adjacent to our existing campus, and converted that into another SEZ. We are getting Infosys and US Technology as co-developers and they are building their own campuses.

We are also having independent buildings being constructed by companies such as Tata Elxsi, NeST, Case Consult — all have taken some land inside the Technopark. All of them are constructing their own buildings in the existing Technopark campus.

We are also planning to go for the Phase 3 expansion — Phase 1 is the existing 186 acres, Phase 2 is 86 acres of SEZ and in Phase 3, we are just completing the acquisition of 100 acres of land adjacent to the existing campus. We should be getting the land in a month.

In Phase 3, we will be allocating some of the land for companies to set up their own campuses and we will also be developing part of it ourselves.

You are also planning a Technocity near Thiruvananthapuram. Where does that fit in?

Technocity is our Phase 4 expansion. It is coming up on 507 acres of land in Pallipuram, about 5 km from the Technopark, on the national highway to Kollam. We are planning to develop that as an integrated city. A satellite city where you will have not just software development office complexes, but also residential facilities, social infrastructure such as hotels, schools, hospitals, entertainment and other facilities such a shopping malls and all that. So this is going to be an integrated, fully contained standalone city that will not add to the pressure on the city (Thiruvananthapuram).

Land acquisition is going on. We are hopeful of completing land acquisition this year itself. Most likely, it will come up in the public-private partnership model.

Will the Technocity focus on any specific area?

IT, ITES and biotechnology are the three focus areas.

Technopark Thiruvananthapuram has set up a business incubation centre. What has been the response to this facility?

The response is excellent; the success rate is even more excellent. We started this Technopark Business Incubation Centre — we call it T-Bic — about two-and-a-half years ago. So far, we would have got about 35 to 38 companies operating from T-Bic; only five companies have failed. All the others have succeeded and some of them have really grown. Some of them have moved out. Many of them are moving to the new building, Thejaswini. So that is the way they have grown. Being a Government set up facility, we want to give opportunity for individuals and first-generation entrepreneurs to try out their technical and business ideas. That is what we provide in the business incubation centre.

This is something we want to expand. We are earmarking 10,000 sq.ft of space in Thejaswini for T-Bic. There is tremendous pressure on space; we are completely sold out, but we want to retain this space to support incubation. Major breakthrough things will happen through this incubation, that is our belief. You would have heard of a company called Torque started by engineering college students. And the impact of that in society is so high, we get calls from so many students now asking `can we start something like this, we have an idea'. It is going to create a culture of entrepreneurship in our State.

sankarmr@thehindu.co.in

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