The Kerala government on Tuesday allotted 70 acres of land at the Technocity campus and 25,000 sq feet space at the Technopark campus in Thiruvananthapuram to Japan's Nissan Motors to set up a digital innovation hub.
This campus will be named the "Nissan Knowledge City". Their other hubs are located in Japan, China, France and the US.
The company will initially begin operations in 25,000 sq ft space in the Technopark Phase III campus.
Nissan’s digital hub will serve as the nerve centre of the company’s research in electric and automated vehicles. Nissan's digital innovation hub will host a team of engineers and scientists, working to create innovations in automated and electronic vehicles space.
The company will be initiating Research and Development work in artificial intelligence, cognitive analytics, machine learning and other digital technologies.
On setting up operations, the company is expected to generate 3,000 direct and many more indirect employment opportunities.
As per the government order, 30 acres of land will be allotted in the first phase and another 40 acres in the second.
Nissan chose Kerala to set up its digital innovation hub due to a range of factors from available talent pool in IT and engineering, cost-effectiveness, airport connectivity, quality of life, and lack of traffic issues as well as positive feedback from successful IT companies at Technopark.
"With Nissan's strategic engagement, we are confident that we will be able to rope in a host of IT companies also to our state," said Technopark CEO Hrishikesh Nair.
In the next development, an MoU between Nissan and Technopark is expected to happen by the month-end or the first week of July.
The official spokesperson said that the entry of Nissan into Kerala will go a long way in promoting the campaign taken up by the government to market the state as a global IT destination.
(With IANS inputs)