Infrastructure

Social infrastructure

The social infrastructure in Kerala is the best among all the states in the country. Literacy level in the state is the highest at 90.9 per cent compared to the national average of 65.4 per cent, with free and compulsory school education. The state has 7 universities and 186 colleges. It has the most positive sex ratio in the country (1058 women for every 1000 men).

The state has the most extensive medical infrastructure and the lowest infant mortality rate in the country (9 deaths against the national average of 42 deaths per 1,000 births). The public health centres in the state have increased from 199 to 959 in the last decade. It has the highest per capita public health expenditure at US$ 2.7.

Access infrastructure

The state has the highest road density in the country (four times the national average). Road length in the state increased by 9.8 per cent in 2002-03. It has a total road length of nearly 1 10,500 km.

The state has a good railway network, with the Thiruvananthapuram division ranking second in number of passengers and passenger earnings. This division carries 165,000 passengers daily, operating 47 express/mail trains and 59 passenger trains. The newly constructed Konkan railways has enhanced connectivity to trade circuits in Mumbai and Pune. In 1998-99, the total railway route length in the state stood at 1, 198 km.

The state has three international airports at Thiruvanthapuram, Kochi and Kozhikode. A fourth international airport is proposed at Kannur in the northern part of the state. The state has

an international sea port at Kochi, three intermediate ports at Neendakara, Alappuzha, Kozhikode and 12 minor ports. It also has a well established inland water transport network, which serves the water logged areas of Alappuzha, Kollam, Kottayam, Ernakulam, Kasargod and Kannur districts.

Power

Apart from these, the state has 17 hydel units and one wind power unit. All these units put together amount to a capacity of around 2,31 1 MW. While majority of the hydel units have a capacity in the 10 to 75 MW range, the biggest unit is located at Idukki which can produce 780 MW of power.

Communications infrastructure

The state has a well-developed telecommunications infrastructure with the highest tele-density in the country. All the telephone exchanges in the state are connected to STD/ISD network and 98 per cent are connected to the National Internet Backbone (NIB) by optical fibre cables.

The state has seven Internet service providers. Private operators such as Reliance, Bharti and Asianet have laid optical fibre networks in the state. Kerala has two submarine cable landings and supports a bandwidth of 15 Gbps. Kochi, the primary international gateway, handles two-thirds of the country's data traffic.

Industrial infrastructure

The infrastructure facilities offered in the state include industrial parks, industrial estates, development areas/plots, export promotion zones and special economic zones catering to the agro sector, export promotion, small industries, film industry, IT, electronics, fisheries and rubber.

The state has set up nine industrial parks with another eight nearing completion. In addition, 17 industrial estates cater specifically to small industries. Two infotech parks, at Thiruvananthapuram and Kochi, are equipped with state-of-the-art facilities. The state is implementing 'Akshaya', an e-literacy programme to promote IT Enabled Services.

Kerala has developed a Special Economic Zone at Kochi. Spread over 103 acres, the zone was built with an investment of US$ 15.69 million. Exports of electronics, hardware & software, garments, gems & jewellery, plastics, rubber products, engineering and agro products from the zone totalled US$69.19 million in 2003.

Another three industrial development zones are likely to be converted to Special Economic Zones (SEZs) subject to approval from the Government of India.

Content Source: www.ibef.org