Chennai: The Tidel Park Limited in Chennai, touted as Asia Pacific's largest information technology park with 1.28 million square feet space, would embark on a second phase expansion by the end of this year, a top official has said.

"The industry is expected to revive in the third or fourth quarter. We will go in for the second phase before the year is out," Tidel Park's Managing Director B V M Sarma said.

A market survey conducted by the Park indicated that there was going to be demand for huge space by IT companies in the next few years in Chennai, he said, but hastened to add that it was done before the September 11 terrorist strikes in the US.

Sarma said the Rs 295 crore phase-I, which has 100 per cent occupancy, is a success with 60 per cent of tenants being American multinational companies and 30 per cent Indian MNCs.

Responding to a question, he told a Bangalore media team last week that the biggest contribution of the government to Tidel, a joint venture of Tamil Nadu Industrial Development Corporation and Electronic Corporation of India, having world-class IT facilities, is "non-interference".

PTI