Technopark phase 3 expansion to start soon
August 31st, 2008
On 4th September 2008, Chief minister V.S. Achuthanandan will inaugurate the commencement of 3 phase expansion of Technopark in Trivandrum. This will involve creation of various infrastructure for companies and construction of an internal ring road in the Technopark campus. Various software campuses of companies such as UST Gobal and Infosys is being constructed as part of Phase III. Remember, this expansion is independent of the new Technocity campus coming up near Pallippuram.
The third phase is coming up on the Trivandrum - Kovalam bypass near Kulathur and will extend Technopark towards city. This will involve creation of an SEZ with 92 acres of land. The plan is to complete third phase by 2012 when a total office space of ten million sq. ft will be available in Technopark. The projected employee strength is over 100,000! Once completed, this will make Technopark the largest IT park in Asia!!
Work in progress,
- 1.5 million sq. ft Infosys campus with a capacity of 10,000 employees and is scheduled for first phase completion in March 2009.
- 3 million sq. ft UST Global campus.
- 1.2 million sq. ft TCS campus.
Currently Technopark employees over 18,000 IT professionals and there are over 140 registered companies. There are also couple of new buildings coming up inside the current campus (the Leela IT park with an area over 400,000 sq. ft and the second block of IBS campus with 12 floors).
IT seems to be the only industry thriving in Kerala. As the Technopark expansion shows it can also bring in a lot of jobs to Kerala. Remember, if 100,000 get jobs in Technopark it will indirectly support over a million people in Kerala!
There are also problems with such huge scale expansion. One obviously is the problems with infrastructure. For example, the roads leading to Technopark is already saturated and there are traffic jams on the highway. Within a year, we will be seeing huge traffic problems in Trivandrum. Government is doing something to improve roads, but anti-social elements such as hardcore environmentalists are blocking any good move. You won’t believe this, but recently there was a cabinet meeting of Kerala ministers to decide the fate of a tree blocking the road expansion! After a lengthy meeting they have decided to cut one tree and spare others!!
The second is that if not planned, rapid expansion of Technopark will bring nightmare to the Trivandrum city population. For example, the house rents have gone up a lot in city areas near Technopark. What happened at Bangalore is a good reminder.
Another bigger problem is the long term sustainability of Technopark. In the last all India strike called by left parties, local Kazhakkoottam goonda elements tried to disrupt functioning of Technopark. In fact few of the employees were abused at the main Technopark gate and they were forced to go back home. They even tried to block the convoy which had police protection. If this problem gets worse in future, we may see companies soon ejecting out of Technopark.
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August 31st, 2008 at 1:40 pm
Thanks for highlighting this article here KT.
:)
the last stanza is the most worrying aspect for me. These political thugs have now set their eyes on TP, of all places, to crumble it down for the success of their obscene hartals. If this is going to continue, well, we can say good bye to the last efforts to save Kerala.
August 31st, 2008 at 7:13 pm
The problems faced by technopark employees should be addressed first. There are a lot of exploitation of employees by employers there. Most of the companies don’t give adequate salary. A software engineer in Technopark gets almost half the salary of a similar guy in Bangalore. Also there is the anti-employee association called DTEC which among its various anti-employee activities does not allow a person leaving a company to be taken by another company within 6 months. Added to that, most of the small companies expel ladies when they get pregnant. There is a company which openly says that it will give incentives to any employee who spies over other employees and finds something. Govt and authorities need to address this exploitation first before going to SEZ and other ventures. SEZ will only worsen this situation.
August 31st, 2008 at 7:21 pm
Yes Sunil, that definitely is an issue with some companies. I have blogged about it before,
http://www.keralatips.org/2007/01/26/the-need-for-employee-unity-exploitation-in-technopark-it-companies/
This association is called GTECH. Funny thing is that employer companies have union while employees don’t. Again another first in God’s Own Country. Without proper checks & balances, SEZ will also be an exploiter’s heaven.
September 2nd, 2008 at 3:13 pm
@Sunil,
I guess you can’t compare the salaries of an SE working in TVM and in Bangalore. One reason would be the living expenses. In TVM, you can get a 2BHK spacious house for3k-5k. In Bangalore the rent is twice. Petrol is 5Rs costlier than TVM.
Not to mention the road tax which is 12-14%. I believe its only 6% in Kerala.
I am sure when the living expense increase in TVM, with more companies coming in, the salaries will also become comparable.
September 3rd, 2008 at 8:52 pm
@xylene567
This is exactly what the management of Technopark companies say. What the companies give to employees should not have any relation with the cost of living of the employees. If the management get comparable rates from the clients, then they should give similar salaries here too. Bangalore companies don’t suffer losses when paying higher salaries, do they? And in Trivandrum the office space is quite cheap compared to that in Bangalore.
September 3rd, 2008 at 11:50 pm
You struck the bull’s eye, Sunil. I’m a senior guy in my company and I know how much they charge clients in Technopark. They charge anywhere between $50/hour to over $125/hour. And how much do they give employees? - 3 to 8 $ per hr on an average. This is true exploitation.
September 4th, 2008 at 11:46 am
And I’d afraid that if SEZ companies are given more freedom, then it will be a haven for such anti-employee behaviour.
September 5th, 2008 at 11:57 am
Suni,
I think its because companies run to make profits, running costs including salary is less in Trivandrum. but we will soon see a big change when more companies set up their offices there.
Regarding billing, you are right. Then its different in companies like infy to a smaller company. But the salaries are comparable, if its the same location.
September 5th, 2008 at 11:59 am
Raymond,
/This is true exploitation./
I am not sure if its exploitation, if they start giving the employees the same charge they bill, how will the companies makes profit.
Also the idea of outsourcing is to cut down costs. If the client has to be pay more or same as that of what he is paying in the US, then there is no point for him to outsource.
September 5th, 2008 at 2:23 pm
Who says the employee should get the same as the client is charged. It’s the difference that I show here - where is 1254 and where is 8$? Bangalore companies also get similar, if not more. They can pay more salaries or are forced to. So technopark companies are giving meagre salaries to employees and making huge profit out of them.
September 6th, 2008 at 10:53 am
sorry, 125$ and not 1254. Adding: This is true exploitation.
September 8th, 2008 at 2:11 am
These small companies also are reluctant to tell the employee how much leave he can take in a year and even more reluctant to sanction leaves due for him. Also, employees sometimes have to face the song of the clients. Most of the companies treat clients as Gods and are pampered. The client pays lot of money to these companies and expect it to be completed within a very short time. The employee, who is not given adequate training, find it very difficult to complete it within the deadline. He also is not motivated since he gets low salary. Exploitation everywhere!!!!
September 8th, 2008 at 9:23 am
I agree with you guys there. If we compare it with the money the client pays, there is a huge difference.
I think Kochi pays better. The small companies have bonds etc that keep their employees glued to the same company for years.
But the employees of major companies can always quit and move to other locations. Like Kochi or Bangalore.
September 8th, 2008 at 9:30 pm
@xylene
Why should an employee go to a place which is costlier and does not give him better savings? It is this situation that the companies in Technopark exploits, thereby making huge profit out of them by giving them low salary. Also, software companies suck out the life of its employees by asking them to work long hours. Long and stressful working hours bring health risks. These companies do all sorts of activities and seminars (as though)to promote the employee’s health. But actually, they themselves should stop asking for overtime work over 8 hours a day. The body will suffer if one is to work for more than 8 hours per day. Or else, they should give double pay, as they do in the Western world, so that the employee gets enough to treat for his health problem out of overtime work. Death due to heart attack, and infertility are very common among software engineers. Recently two software engineers (one of them an IIT MTech guy) committed suicide because they could not cope up with the severe work stress! If SEZ has more of such companies, it will be a hell to the employees working there.
September 10th, 2008 at 12:16 pm
How true, Sunil! These health activities and seminars (Good living, music therapy and so on) are only to deceive the employees and show others that they care their employees. If they truly are concerned about employees’ health, they have to strictly follow a 40 hour week, (as IT is a stress industry) and give double pay for overtime work! Else SEs will get hypertension, heart ailments, diabetes, cancer and other diseases and will die at a very young age.
September 16th, 2008 at 9:09 pm
@raymond
True, in a leading company in Technopark, the average death rate is 2 SEs per year.
September 20th, 2008 at 2:30 pm
@toms
Ya, in that company, only guys below 30 yrs die; no problem for gals. Maybe ‘coz the guys are hung by their ties and stressed up by their shoes. Why can’t such companies understand that ties and shoes are not good for our hot and humid climate?
September 22nd, 2008 at 2:45 pm
FLASH NEWS: Another young SE, this time also a guy below 30 yrs, died in this company. Time to rethink the company overtime and official attire policies.
September 30th, 2008 at 5:05 am
Hi guys, all of you are complaining that the management is not giving you what you are worth. Then why do you tag along ? Quit the technopark and go away to your wonderful heaven. Also I challenge, the person who claims that “They charge anywhere between $50/hour to over $125/hour”, to show the proof. I dont know even the remotest chance to nab a job more than 25$ if on the hourly contract, but for full contracts, the rates are far less. The GTECH has a gentle mans agreement, sure. This is of course to save the interests of promoters, and to avoid unhealthy competition. Even with that, I have knows companies snatching people away with twice or thrice salaries.
September 30th, 2008 at 8:56 am
Companies snatching people?
Get real. If you pay good money, you will get good people who can make more money for you. It is all about market. How is the companies that pay double or thrice making profit?
If you need good people, you need to pay money. Using illegal methods (bond etc.) is NOT the way to retain your employees!
October 6th, 2008 at 6:23 pm
I’m in charge of charging the customers in my company. So I know the exact situation. Maybe this is not true in another technopark company. GTech is an anti-employee and a fraud organisation as far as employees are concerned.
Latest news: Another company AI cheating 600 employees of Rs 1 lakh each from all around India after asking them to sign a bond for 3 years. The owners are absconding.
October 30th, 2008 at 9:45 pm
FLASH NEWS: IBS dismissed more than a dozen employees (within 1 hour) in 2 weeks citing performance and financial reasons. Even the BEST PERFORMER dismissed!!!!