World Trade Centre to be set up in Kochi at Rs 250 crore

Kochi: A World Trade Centre will be set up in Kochi at Rs 250 crore by Brigade Group and provide around 8,000 jobs, the Benguluru-based real estate major said Friday.

The WTC will be set up at the Infopark campus here. The first phase of the twin-tower project on 7.7 lakh sq ft space is expected to be ready by September. About 3.85 lakh sq ft space would be developed in the first phase with focus on IT-ITES, Brigade Group CEO, Commercial and Retail, Vishal Mirchandani told reporters here.

"With its excellent global and domestic connectivity, Kochi is well poised to be a global city in the future. The WTC Kochi is poised to change the socio economic scenario of Kochi," he said.

"The total investment for the two towers will be around Rs 250 crore and about 8,000 jobs are expected to be provided," Mirchandani said.

This will be the third World Trade Centre in the country after the ones in Mumbai and Bengaluru. The group also has licences for setting up WTCs at Thiruvananthapuram, Chennai and Hyderabad, he said.

In Kochi, lot more thrust will be given to IT sector. Kochi is projected to be one of the top Tier-II cities that will witness the largest IT/ITes sector growth in the country.

State IT and Industries Secretary P H Kurian said the WTC would be a great attraction for various companies to come to Kochi to set up base.

WTC is to be located in the heart of the booming IT hub of Kakkanad with state-of-the-art infrastructure, easy accessibility, Grade A specifications and LEED Gold Pre-certification.

It is designed to meet the growing requirement of expanding IT/ITES companies and provide a big boost to the sector.

Being co-developed with Kochi Infopark, the WTC will offer 35,767 sq mts (3.85 lakh sq ft) of commercial space with scalability up to 71,535 sq mts (7.7 lakh sq ft) in two towers.

Inforpark CEO Hrishikesh Nair said the WTC will be a 'gamechanger' for Kochi. "There are possibilities of developing an IT corridor between Infopark and Smartcity."

Presently, Infopark has 200 companies, providing employment to 25,000 persons. The employment opportunities will go up by two to three times once the IT corridor becomes a reality.

The WTC brand will ensure a significant impetus to the IT/ITes sector, besides providing an international platform of services for global and Indian companies to operate their businesses, said P Balaram Menon, President, World Trade Centre, Bengaluru.