India’s Trimax to build Knowledge and Tech Park in Hambantota

By David Ebert

Trimax IT Infrastr-ucture and Data Services Ltd., of India yesterday signed the official agreement with the Ministry of Telecom and Information Technology, to set up what will be called the Saki Data Centre at the proposed Saki Knowledge and Technology Park in Hambantota.

The official agreement was signed by Trimax Chairman and Managing Director Surya Prakash Madrecha and Ministry of Telecom and Information Technology Secretary H.M. Gunasekara at the Cinnamon Lakeside Colombo yesterday.

Trimax, a 150 million dollar company with 11 offices, 600 support locations and over 1,600 employees in India alone, specialises in end-to-end services in the IT infrastructure sector, such as managed network services, data centre hosting, build and co-location services, remote infrastructure management, application services, business intelligence services and cloud applications on SaaS and IaaS models.  

The company also provides customised solutions in e-governance, transport, banking and financial services and possesses vast experience in establishing, operating, and maintaining data centres for both the State and enterprise sectors in India.



With the Government expecting exponential economic growth for the country, BOI Chairman M.M.C. Ferdinando stated that investments such as this in IT and infrastructure were keeping in line with the Government’s 10-year ‘Taking Sri Lanka to 2020’ initiative, which would also help position the country as a regional knowledge hub.

Ferdinando further stated that the BOI expected growing enthusiasm from IT-related corporations to participate and be a part of the Hambantota IT Park and went on to add that the expected total investments targeted would be a massive US$ 5 billion.

Responding to a query with regards to tax and other concessions provided to Trimax, Ferdinando revealed that the company has been provided with a 12-year tax holiday as well as Customs duty and Value Added Tax exemptions for the required project-related equipment.

The Rs. 3.5 billion data centre project, which is to be situated at a proposed 1,500 acre IT Park in Hambantota, will look to provide shared, secured and managed infrastructure for consolidating and hosting national level applications with a view to providing government-to-government, government-to-citizen and government-to-business services, which would be fast, efficient, trustworthy and also provide a managed environment for individuals and businesses to conduct secure transactions.

Speaking at the ceremony Trimax Chairman and Managing Director Surya Prakash Madrecha expressed confidence in the country’s economy and development plans: “We are happy to invest in an emerging market like Sri Lanka, one of the fastest growing economies in the world, and to support the Government’s 10-year development plan to take the country forward and make it the wonder of Asia. Investment in IT infrastructure in such an environment is of fundamental importance, thus it is a great opportunity for Trimax.”

Madrecha added that the role of IT in enabling information and knowledge was especially pronounced in emerging market economics and stated that with over 16 years of experience in the deployment of IT services and solutions, the company is confident that the setting up of the Saki Data Centre in Sri Lanka is just the beginning of an exciting and progressive journey.

He pledged the company’s continued commitment to local skills development, with plans for training and employing a total of 500 local staff for direct employment at the proposed centre, which is scheduled to be completed within the next nine months.