Kochi Infopark to have campus police station

Kochi Infopark will get a full-fledged police station-cum-cybercell within its campus with construction starting in six months, said home and vigilance minister Ramesh Chennithala during a meeting held to review the security arrangements at the IT park. Infopark had already allotted 45 cents of land free-of-cost for setting up the police station inside the campus.

He said the Kochi City Police would designate a police official to patrol the area during peak hours. The minister noted the safety of women employees, who constitute 50 per cent of the workforce at Infopark, was of utmost importance to the government.

Responding to the concerns raised by the employees regarding the exorbitant fares charged by auto drivers in the vicinity, the minister said he would soon instruct the authorities concerned to open another pre-paid counter near the campus in addition to the existing one near the main gate.

Chennithala urged the employees to contact the police through the newly-launched Facebook and WhatsApp facilities, or by phone on numbers provided by the Kochi City Police.

He invited them to communicate any complaints directly to him through his Facebook page. The minister also assured that the city police will soon put in place a concrete programme to address the issues faced by the IT employees here.

The meeting was organised by Infopark and the Group of Technology Companies (GTech), the industry body of software companies in Kerala, with support from the Kochi city police. During the interaction, major issues highlighted by the employees were the poor condition of the roads, especially the Edachira PWD road and the safety of women employees who work during late-night shifts.

GTech agreed to provide one bike for the police patrol team to enable them to conduct 24-hour surveillance in and around Infopark. The association is also planning to convene similar meetings with the Minister for Public Works and the Minister for Transport, soon.

Infopark houses around 200 companies, which collectively employ close to 24,000 IT professionals.