Business Standard

First SEZ for animation by July 

March 24, 2006

    India will now have its first special economic zone (SEZ) for animation and gaming with the Kerala Industrial Infrastructure Development Corporation (KINFRA) having received government clearance for the same this month.

    The SEZ is spread across 25 acres of land at the KINFRA Film and Video Park (KFVP) in Thiruvananthapuram and is expected to house around 10 air-conditioned studios — on the 150,000 square feet. The park is modelled on similar theme parks in Singapore, Malaysia and Hong Kong.

    “The infotainment industrial park is a cluster of media companies including post-production facilities like recording theatres, editing and dubbing studios. Export oriented units in the animation industry can set shop inside the zone,” says S Ramnath, MD, KFVP.

    KINFRA is also talking to private players to jointly set up an International Animation School within KFVP. Being a theme park, the studios will also have the advantage of the basic infrastructure and support facilities like banks, guest houses and security.

    “The SEZ in Kerala aims to develop and strengthen the supply base of animation and production studios and to encourage development of the existing animation and gaming capacity. It also focuses on evolving a concept of infrastructure sharing as well as making available a talent pool,” says A S Suresh Babu, MD, KINFRA.

    Incidentally, KINFRA has created around 17 theme-based parks in just over a decade. KINFRA has also started the development of a biotechnology park at Kalamassery, Kochi, jointly with TCD Urban Infrastructure Holdings, Mumbai.

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