However, Kumar will continue to hold office till August 30, 2000. Satheesh Kumar had been with Technopark ever since its inception in 1990 first as General Manager (Technical) and later as Chief Executive Officer, when his predecessor Vijayaraghavan quit as CEO in May 1997. Recently Sateesh Kumar's term was extended for a further period of three years with effect from May 1, 2000.

The Kerala government is yet to identify a new CEO, according to industry sources. Sateesh Kumar leaves Technopark at a time when the growth of the government-sponsored IT park was in the take-off stage, having overcome its teething troubles. The state government has so far spent over Rs 76 crore in the Technopark, which has attracted over 50 infotech units with investments coming from USA, Europe, and the Gulf. This year the campus is poised to generate an annual surplus of Rs 1.5-2 crore, which will be ploughed back into further infrastructure creation, Sateesh Kumar said. The space in the Pamba, Periyar and Nila buildings has been fully taken up by companies.

The fourth building under construction, Chandragiri, has also been committed to a US group, which will start operations from September 2000. Construction activities on the fifth building, Bhavani, and the sixth one, yet to be named, will commence shortly. Bhavani will have 88 modules of 2000 sq ft each, and is about 70 per cent of the size of Nila. The present plan is to make 60,000 sq ft available by September 2000, 50,000 sq ft, each by December 2000 and February 2000, respectively and 100,000 sq ft each by March 2001 and October 2001, respectively. Thus the total area under construction comes to a total of 3,60,000 sq ft to be completed in phases over the next 15 months.