The Hindu Business Line : Goa set to develop IT infrastructure

Growth plans
At the Rajiv Gandhi IT Habitat, plots have been allotted to Ampersand Dig Media and Entertainment, Technology Option India Pvt. Ltd and S.A.S. Sevizio Ltd.
The Government aims to create employment for its educated unemployed youth in the pre-matriculate and higher secondary category.
It has also allotted plots to companies engaged in creating IT infrastructure.

Panaji , Aug. 15

Goa is all set to develop infrastructure for IT industries at its Rajiv Gandhi IT Habitat coming up at the Dona Paula plateau near here. The State expects to attract around Rs 500-crore investment to this IT park in the next couple of years.

The project, coming up on about 1.84-lakh sq m of land, is divided into 18 plots; land is being sold at Rs 3,100 per sq m.

The Minister for Information Technology, Mr Dayanand Narvekar, said, "We will have to make do with second-rung IT players, not because big players are not interested in Goa; simply because we cannot provide them huge tracts of land, which is their main requirement." Consequently, only Wipro is the big player which is expected to get about 1.02 lakh sq m of land for its IT project coming up on the outskirts of this park.

In the tiny coastal State, land is indeed a scarce resource. Already the issue of foreigners indiscriminately purchasing land defying legal norms has raised the hackles of the locals.

Plot allotment

At the Rajiv Gandhi IT Habitat, the process for allotment of plots has started.

So far, plots have been allotted to Ampersand Dig Media and Entertainment, Technology Option India Pvt. Ltd and S.A.S. Sevizio Ltd.

The Government aims to create employment for its educated unemployed youth in the pre-matriculate and higher secondary category. Mr Narvekar said on Monday that these companies would be engaged in the production of multi-media and entertainment software, and business process outsourcing like call centres to generate jobs for the locals.

For instance, Mr Narvekar said, S.A.S. Servizio Ltd, which is in the call centre business, is currently associated with Hewlett Packard and has offices in Mumbai and Haryana. This company, the Minister said, proposes to employ about 1,700 people by investing around Rs 200 crore; the area allotted to this company is 40,000 sq m.

The Government has also allotted plots to companies engaged in creating IT infrastructure. Tata Housing Development Corporation, along with a local firm, proposes to create infrastructure on an area of about 23,000 sq m.

Another real estate company Pawa International, which is in the business of providing large built-up space for IT industries, has been allotted an area of 40,000 sq m. Dempo, a local business group, has also been allotted a plot of 7,000 sq m.

The development of basic infrastructure is in progress, the Minister said.

On the Soccorro IT project, which is coming up in his assembly constituency in North Goa, the process of acquiring 6 lakh sq m of land has started.

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