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L.N. Revathy

To set up own campus with TIDCO, Wipro, TCS

DESTINATION IT: (From left) The Managing Director of Elcot, Mr C. Umashankar, the Coimbatore Collector, Mr Neeraj Mittal, and the Chairman and Managing Director of Tamil Nadu Industrial Development Corporation Ltd, Mr S. Ramasundaram, during an interaction with entrepreneurs on the proposed IT Park in Coimbatore on Wednesday. — K. Ananthan

Coimbatore , Sept. 13

The IT park project mooted by the Government is now progressing fast, after years of waiting.

Three years have gone by since identifying the site within the Coimbatore Medical College campus. In the meantime, a number of renowned IT players, who had evinced keen interest in taking a space opted out. The passing of necessary Government Orders for transferring the 29-acre land from the Health Department to the IT Department did not seem to have any effect on the pace of progress.

But now, the Electronics Corporation of Tamil Nadu (ELCOT) Managing Director, Mr C. Umashankar, is confident that the proposed project would come up within 18 months of finalising the modalities. Construction is yet to commence, but considering the tremendous pressure for space, ELCOT is in the process of speeding up the process.

"Marketing Coimbatore is no issue for ELCOT. We organised roadshows at San Hose in California, New York, New Jersey and other places. Wherever we went, we realised that people were looking much beyond Coimbatore. For us, Coimbatore is a sold out market," he said.

The Government is looking at promoting the tier II and III towns such as Salem, Madurai, Tiruchi , Tirunelveli and Hosur. Lands have been identified in all these places.

On the Coimbatore IT park, Mr Umashankar said Wipro and TCS would be joining the project promoters - ELCOT and TIDCO - by setting up their own campus in the land demarcated for the purpose. "The Government has allotted 10 acres of land to Wipro and 5 acres to TCS. We will put up a building in 10 acres. The project cost - inclusive of land and building is estimated at around Rs 240-250 crore. There would be 1.2 million square feet of space available, providing employment to about 12,000 persons."

He said the joint venture company (ELCOT and TIDCO) with TCS and Wipro would deposit Rs 25 crore with the Highways Department for arranging the access road to the site.

STPI would also be investing in the project, he said. When asked about STPI's share of investment, he maintained that `discussions were on.'

According to the ELCOT MD, the building design was ready, pending finalisation. "We will finalise it within the next 40 days."

He said with the STPI scheme coming to a close in another two-and-half years, there was a strong latent demand for space, with many companies wanting to move into SEZs.

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