IT SEZ Real Estate Updates: 05/06/09

 

BENGAL IT DEPT SHORTLISTS 3 COS FOR RS 5000 CRORE KALYANI PROJECT
Kolkata
Business Standard

Three companies--Mahindra Lifespace, Raheja group, and Paharpur Cooling Towers--have evinced interest in the Rs 5,000 crore Kalyani Infotech Park, following a tender floated by the West Bengal Electronics Industry Development Corporation Ltd (Webel), the state's nodal IT agency.

State IT department sources said, "The three shortlisted bidders are Mahindra Lifespace, a Mahindra & Mahindra group company, Paharpur Cooling Towers and K Raheja Corp, owners of Shoppers Stop. We hope to finalise the private partner from the shortlisted bidders by June."

The 100 acre IT park is expected to be operational in five years from the zero date.

Webel floated the tender on September 12, inviting expression of interest (EOI) for the proposed IT park at Kalyani to be developed in public-private partnership mode. The department received several bids but shortlisted three firms.

The state needs to augment its infrastructure, around 30 new IT companies have come to Bengal in the first half of this year till date, mainly export oriented, for which infrastructure would have to be upgraded, said Debesh Das, state IT minister.

At present, the total IT space available for the IT/ITES industry in the state was about 7-8 million square feet of office space and another 20 million square feet of office space was currently under construction dedicated exclusively for the IT industry, which will be added over the next 2-3 years' time.

“With the financial meltdown, the completion date might be delayed by another year or two,” said Das.

One of the main problems because of which many of the IT projects in Bengal had made little progress was inability to get land.

Wipro and Infosys signed memoranda of understanding (MoUs) with the state government last year but were yet to get possession of the 90-acre land (each) that they sought for. “The department is in the process of getting the land. It will take some time,” said Das. In 2007, DLF had announced it would develop a state-of-the art world class facility on 25 acres for IT/ITeS workspace. The project had got SEZ status, but the company has applied for a denotification and has been allowed to go forth with the IT projects sans SEZ status.

“Definitely infrastructure projects are going slow in the state because of the recession, but DLF's decision to denotify the Rajarhat IT SEZ project will not affect infrastructure scenario. Now the company will get more domestic clients in place of those involved in IT exports, a major requisite for SEZs. Both ways, we stand to gain. Sector V is not an SEZ, but it has attracted many a big players,” said Das.

UP GOVT URGED TO SET UP IT PARK FOR SMES
Virendra Singh Rawat, New Delhi/Lucknow
Business Standard

The information technology industry in Uttar Pradesh has urged the government to set up an IT park in the Lucknow Industrial Development Authority (Lida).

Since, small and medium enterprises (SMEs) account for over 60 percent of state industries, the industry wants the IT Park to be dedicated to the sector.

Besides, the industry wants simpler registration process for the Software Technology Park of India (STPI) and subsidy for IT solutions for medium small and micro enterprises (MSMEs).

“The STPI registration process is very cumbersome. Despite India’s big domestic IT market, there is no technology park exclusively for the SME IT companies. There is need to develop such an IT park at Lida,” Indian Industries Association executive director DS Verma said.

Lida is a proposed industrial enclave along the Lucknow-Kanpur highway. The corridor is likely to give a major fillip to the industrial and commercial development in the region on the lines of Noida.

IIA proposes to take up massive awareness campaign on IT use among MSMEs in collaboration with industry associations and solution providers. Recently, an IIA delegation met UP principal secretary - IT department, Chandra Prakash to discuss IT use for disseminating updated, relevant and accurate information to the investors in UP.

“The objective was to find ways and means to facilitate the much-desired investment in UP by attracting potential investors from India and abroad,” Verma added.

During a recent visit to Lucknow, S Ramadorai, managing director and CEO of Tata Consultancy Services, also called for 'proactive steps' by Uttar Pradesh to develop Lucknow as an IT hub. According to Ramadorai, the city has the potential to emerge as an IT hub as 12 percent of India’s top-of-line IT professionals come from this part of the country.

SEZ DECISION: MATANHY SLAMS CENTRE
Panaji
The Times of India

Even as the state government remained tightlipped over the Centre's decision to allow the K Raheja group more time to develop their special economic zone (SEZ) in Goa, official sources said the government will once again approach the Centre and urge it to denotify the notified SEZs in Goa.

Reacting to the Centre's latest decision, Matanhy Saldanha, the convenor of Goa's Movement Against SEZ (GMAS) said the Union commerce secretary G K Pillai "was playing his own games".

Saldanha said the state government had all along said it did not want SEZs in Goa and that the former commerce minister Kamal Nath had also said the Centre would not thrust SEZs on Goa. "It is Pillai that is misleading everybody," he said.

In Goa, the K Raheja group was planning of developing an IT/ITES SEZ in an area of 107.17 ha at Verna with an investment of Rs 1723.41 crore. The other two SEZs in Goa are Meditab Specialities Private Limited's pharma SEZ at Bhutkhamb in Keri, and Peninsula Pharma Research Centre Private Limited's R & D Biotech Park/SEZ at Sancoale.

 

IT SEZ Real Estate: 04/06/09

 

IT PARK: A DREAM GONE AWRY
Smriti Sharma, Chandigarh
The Tribune

City’s much-hyped IT Park can perhaps be termed as an ambitious project going awry, for ever since its on a roll, nothing seems to be going right with it. For the UT’s estate office is set to serve notices on nine non-IT firms for misusing built-up spaces in Phase-I meant only for the IT firms. After hitting series of “roadblocks”, including many IT firms pulling out and non-IT firms entering in, now the UT estate office is also contributing its share.

These identified non-IT firms in the Chandigarh Technology Park are Information TV, Piccadly Agro, Reli Solutions, Richy Infotech, Spencer’s Solutions, Trigna, Surgose and the DLF.

Despite being in the know of things for past several months, estate officials maintain that due to the shortage of manpower and means it was not possible for them to identify the non-IT firms.

“The manpower that we have to keep a check on whether the company happens to be IT or non-IT was unable to find out the company’s profiles. So, finally we had to ask the DIT to help identify the firms for us. A joint team was the formed to do the needful,” said Ashwini Kumar, AEO. “By evening today, notices would be served on the firms”, he added.

While it is surprising that the primary goal with which the IT park was conceptualised, was to generate jobs at the highest levels for the youth of the region. The fact can well be gauged from the brochure that was released by Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh at the time of the IT Park’s inauguration in 2005.

At that time it, the officials of the UT administration had visualised that by the end of three years, it would be able to providing jobs to 25,000 youths and more. But, so far not more than 10,000 youths have got employment.

In July 2008, the department of information and technology, UT, had also served a notice on DLF developers for leasing out built-up space to non-IT companies in the IT Park. The department had sought a status report on the non-IT activity in the IT Park.

It’s almost eight year since the land was acquired for the three- phase IT park in 2000 till 2005 when it was inaugurated by the Prime Minister, IT park is yet to be, what can be termed as become “fully functional”.

While nearly 16 IT companies were to set up their offices in the IT Park initially, most of them never turned up for various reasons.

The department had also written to the estate officer to initiate action against the real estate developer for violating the terms and conditions of the Chandigarh Sales of Sites and Allotment Rules. As per the allotment rules, the built-up space can only be leased out to those companies that deal with IT and IT-enabled services.

UT’S LOPSIDED VISION CREATED HURDLES
Smriti Sharma, Chandigarh
The Tribune

While the UT administration may tout the Rajiv Gandhi Chandigarh Technology Park as one of its major achievements, in reality till date, it has not only failed to realize its full potential thanks to the lopsided vision of the powers that be, but have also given rise to numerous other problems which couldn’t be envisioned at that time.

From farmers crying hoarse over low compensation for their land acquired for the IT Park to the disinterest shown by the IT firms in establishing their setups, entry of the non-IT firms, growing discontentment among industrialists who paid crores for conversion of their plots under the UT’s conversion policy while the non-IT firms took over the premises in the IT Park, their commercial space in industrial area is still waiting for corporates to set up. All this, coupled with the recession- hit IT industry has proved to be a big blow for the aspirations with which the IT Park was set up.

While the land acquisition for Phase I was done much earlier, where nearly 80,000 sq ft was given to DLF for ready-to-built in sites, its still not fully rented out. Despite this fact, the land was acquired for phase II and I as well. Of all 13 Phase I built-to-suit sites that were to be completed and occupied by April 2007, not a single one is complete - a state repeated in Phase II.

The Chandigarh administration criteria for the success of Phase I and II of the IT Park seem only till the allotment of land. While phase III should have only been planned if Phase I and II were successfully operational, not stopping at this, award for the acquired land nearly 272 acre for phase III has been announced already. Though it was projected that 67,000 IT professionals would be employed, the actual figures of only about 10,000 speak a lot about the planning that had gone in for this mega project, leaving much to be desired and looked into.