Thiruvananthapuram: As many as 79 companies in the Information Technology sector have decided against having offices amid the COVID-19 pandemic, freeing up about 3.05-lakh sq ft space at the IT parks in Kerala in the last eight months.

Apart from the increasing shift to the work-from-home mode, several firms vacated the offices as part of cost-cutting measures.

At the Infopark in Kochi, 63 companies vacated 2.76-lakh sq ft office space. About 75 per cent of these companies have decided against using the entire space allotted to them. Around 87,749 sq ft space was also returned by companies at the Infopark this year for various other reasons.

Major IT company Tech Mahindra, which arrived at the Technopark in Thiruvananthapuram after the entry of Nissan in 2018, also decided to let go of its 11,861 sq ft office space. With this, Kerala has lost out on its claim that the five biggest Indian IT companies had a presence in the state.

However, there were also new takers for 1.22-lakh sq ft space during this period corresponding to the first three quarters of the financial year.

Vacant slots

Building | Location | Vacated Space | No: of firms that vacated | Space lately leased | No: of new tenants

IT Park | Infopark, Kochi | 2.7 lakh sq ft | 63 | 1.04 lakh sq ft | 44

Technopark | Thiruvananthapuram | 31,618 sq ft | 14 | 5,458 sq ft | 6

Cyberpark | Kozhikode | 4,099 sqft | 2 | 13,213 sq ft | 6

(Data from March 1)

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