Kerala IT's latest space 'Athulya', which can accommodate about 4000 employees, and Infopark Expressway would be declared open by Chief Minister V S Achutanandan on June 26.

Situated on 7.1 acres of land, 'Athulya' has a total built up area of 5.5 lakh square feet and can house a software development block with an aera of 3.5 lakh square feet, a cafeteria building and multi-level car parking, a press release from Kerala IT said today.

Infopark CEO, Siddhartha Bhattacharya, said 'Athulya' was designed to be a perfect blend of intelligent workspaces, state-of-the art infrastructure, a 360 degree support facility and lifestyle amenities integrated within one complex to create a business enviornment of hi-technology companies.

About 45 per cent of the space has already been sold out and on being operational will provide world class working infrastructure for companis who are keen to set up a global work environment in Kerala, he said.

Infopark has already created a built up area of 30 lakh square feet in the phase 1. In the next three years, another 20 lakh square feet of built up area would be added to the existing campus making it capable of employing around 40,000 IT professionals. By the end of the decade, the total built up area in the existing premises alone would be 4.2 million square feet.

With such fast growth foreseen, it was imperative to develop the infrastructure around to be able to meet the growing demand, said Dr Ajay Kumar, Principal Secretary IT.

The Rs 30 crore four lane road-Infopark Expressway will connect to the Airport-Seaport road here. About 15 acre of the land was tranferred for the road widening.

Infopark Kochi is the second IT park being promoted by the state government. The Phase 1 is located in 100 acres at nearby Kakkanad. The second phase is being set up in 160 acres in the neighbouring Puthncruz and Kunnatunadu taluk.