Thiruvananthapuram, Feb. 22 :Kerala, more famous to the outside world as an eco tourism hotspot, today became home to the country's largest Information Technology park with the opening of `Tejaswini,' the seventh building in the premises.

With the inauguration of the 8.50 lakh sq ft facility, the IT park now boasts of almost 32 lakh sq ft of commercial space, housing 120 IT companies.

Dedicating the park to nation, Kerala Chief Minister V S Achuthanandan said the government would take all efforts to improve infrastructure facilities and provide maximum support for the growth of the IT industry. The park accommodates six other buildings -- Nila, Bhavani, Gayatri, Chandragiri, Pampa and Periyar --in addition to buildings constructed by IT companies.

Software industry association NASSCOM President Kiran Karnik asked the Kerala Government to work toward achieving total e-literacy by 2010. He also wanted the government to set up an IT corridor from Thiruvananthapuram to Kochi.

K R Jyothilal, Special Secretary (IT), said the new IT policy envisaged distributed development of IT infrastructure by developing knowledge cities in districts along with the expansion of Technopark and Infopark at Kochi in a hub and spoke model. N Radhakrishnan Nair, CEO of the campus, said expansion of the second, third and fourth phases of the park were in the pipeline.(PTI)