Madurai will soon get a giant Information Technology (IT) park with the aim of turning the city into a technology hub, Chief Minister MK Stalin announced on Friday, September 16. The IT park will come up at a cost of Rs 600 crore by the state-run TIDEL IT park and the Madurai Corporation, the CM said, addressing the southern regional MSME meet in Madurai.

"This IT park will be operated and administered by TIDEL and it will be set up in two phases in Madurai's downtown Maatuthavani,” he said. As per reports, the first phase of the IT park which is set to come up in a five-acre campus, is expected to create over 10,000 jobs. And in its second phase, the park would be expanded to another five acres. According to a report by The New Indian Express, the Tamil Nadu CM was quoted to have said, “two decades ago, then CM M Karunanidhi opened the TIDEL park in Chennai leading to a massive growth in the information technology sector in the State. Taking the development to tier-2 and tier-3 cities, the TIDEL company later opened an IT park in Coimbatore. We are exploring options to open neo-TIDEL parks in seven districts”.

The Tamil Nadu government is also in the process of setting up IT parks in tier 2 and tier 3 cities like Tiruppur, Thoothukudi, Thanjavur and Salem. Stalin also mentioned that his government’s idea of industrial development in the state is not just intended at the growth of these particular industries but also a form of employment generation that would help improve the lives of several families.

Reminding that Tamil Nadu has gone from being ranked 14th in the ‘ease of doing business’ category to being third in the list, CM Stalin claimed that with more industrial growth, the state will achieve the trillion dollar economy goal by the end of 2030.