Govt wants IT townships in all states

Rajat Guha & Niranjan Bharati, New Delhi
The Economic Times

IT townships may no longer be the monopoly of Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh or Haryana. Soon, all states will have at least one such township. The Centre has asked all the state governments to carry out feasibility studies for setting up such cities with a minimum area of 40 sq km.

These townships are expected to attract an investment of over Rs 1 lakh crore in software, hardware and electronic equipment industry, a government official said. He said the proposal would be merged with Nasscom’s project to set up 43 IT townships across the country. Nasscom is currently identifying sites for them in consultation with state governments.

The department of information technology (DIT) would be the nodal agency while ministry of urban development will be responsible for developing urban infrastructure in these areas. “The Centre would provide funding for these townships on a case-to-case basis,” a DIT official said, adding that each of the proposals would require separate vetting from the Cabinet.

States like Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and Orissa are in the process of appointing consultants for identifying land and calculating the cost of setting up such townships. Investments on these townships would be shared by the Centre, states and private developers.

The residential townships will be based on the walk-to-work concept. This means professionals working there will be encouraged to live close to the workplace. “Each township is likely to entail an investment of Rs 500-650 crore, depending on the area,” a source in the urban development ministry said.

Sources said the proposed townships will be extension of satellite of adjacent major town. For example, IT township in Faridabad would be called Faridabad Plus. Similarly, the township near Mohali will be called Mohali Plus. The projects would be implemented in phases and expected to come up by 2012. The genesis of IT townships is traced back to the Nasscom-McKinsey report that envisaged IT exports of $60 billion by 2010.