IT Park looks for ‘ANCHOR PLAYER’

Vijayawada
The Hindu
Though recession is proving to be a little dampener, officials of the L&T Hitech City project at Kesarapalli near here are confident that a major software company will be attracted to fill the space of “anchor player” in the project.

Total space
So far, only two companies have come forward to occupy some space at the IT Park’s first tower, which will have a total space of nearly 2 lakh sq.ft. on completion of all works soon. The Extranet Software Solutions and the Tektraks Technologies have booked space here and they are going to occupy the same after the tower is inaugurated next month.

For giving a kick-start to the project’s entire operations, it will need at least one major software company initially and its role will be pivotal in enhancing the image of the IT Park as a potential software hub in the region.

The officials are also looking at the possibility of attracting small and medium players by offering space in blocks of 3,500 sq. ft. each.

The IT tower will have five floors, including the ground floor, each having 40,000 sq. ft. and providing the best infrastructure needed for software companies. A major company having the potential to occupy one entire floor of 40,000 sq. ft. should come to give the much-needed initial boost to the prospects of the IT Park.

At the recently conducted roundtable on ‘Industrial development in Vijayawada and surrounding areas’, Vijayawada MP Lagadapati Rajagopal cited the example of IT Park project in response to the concern expressed by some speakers over lack of industrial development in the district.

The MP said that a good IT Park was ready for occupation at Kesarapalli, but only two companies expressed interest so far. He said that the first priority should be to attract software companies and develop the city as a software hub, as it would not require huge tracts of land.

The officials of the IT Park say even big companies will slowly turn their attention to tier-two cities like Vijayawada in due course of time. They maintain that the companies can reduce costs significantly as space will be offered to them for a rental that is 40 percent cheaper than the same in metro cities. This is available with the same quality of infrastructure, says IT Park chief operating officer V. Udaya Bhasker.

He says consultations are on with three to four companies as of now, while enough space will be offered to attract small and medium players too.