Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan has said that the State government aims to ensure that every ward in every local body in Kerala has a playground.
Inaugurating the state-of-the-art Cyber Sports Arena at Government Cyberpark in Kozhikode on Friday through videoconferencing, the Chief Minister said the government’s comprehensive sports policy, which put special emphasis on the healthcare of people, was ready to roll out. Besides setting up one playground in every ward, the policy envisaged a sports economy to improve infrastructure in the sports sector and provide world-class sports facilities, he said.
As India’s IT exports would touch $350 billion in the next two years, Kerala would play an important role, creating five lakh jobs in the IT sector, said Mr. Vijayan, recounting the growth of the IT sector in the State recently and the efforts made by the government.
As part of the government policy to attract national and international IT companies to the State, IT parks are equipped with land, buildings, smart business centres, infrastructure and ancillary facilities. Around two crore square feet of land is available in Kerala under IT parks directly and through other entrepreneurs. When the Technology Innovation Zone in Kochi becomes fully operational, it will be Asia’s largest tech innovation centre. The centre of excellence in the aerospace sector set up by K-Space in Thiruvananthapuram will soon become a reality. Technocity in Thiruvananthapuram will have comprehensive facilities, including working and living spaces, shopping malls, hospitals and educational institutions. Twenty, small 5G IT parks would come up along the national highway from Kannur to Thiruvananthapuram, he added.
The Sports Arena consists of two fives football turfs of 1,017 square feet each, one 2,035-sq.-ft sevens football turf, a basketball turf of 640 sq. ft and two doubles shuttle badminton courts. MLA Ahammad Devarkovil presided over the event.
