10 companies show interest in setting IT Park in HP

Shimla, Nov 10 (UNI) Ten companies, including DLF Universal, Parsvanath Developers, Uppal Housing and Omaxe Infotech City Developers, have shown an interest in setting up an IT city in Himachal Pradesh, official sources today said.

The project involves an investment of nearly Rs 200 crore over one lakh sq metre of built up area besides construction of facilities like internal roads, streetlights, ETP and green patches.

The sources said the proposed park is to be built in the areas identified at Waknaghat in Solan, Nalagarh near Baddi, Raja-Ka-Bagh in Kangra, Nagri in Kantra and Dalhousie in Chamba.

The IT park would be operated on Build, Own and Operate (BOO) basis and sources said it may be set up in two locations.

The sources said whole or part of the IT park may even be run as a special economic zone (SEZ) for which the state government shall provide all facilitation including requisite government clearances.

A countrywide survey recently carried out by Nasscom predicted that Himachal was likely to have an annual turnover of Rs 20,000 crore by March 31, 2010 from software and services.

The sources said with an almost zero job attrition rate unlike in IT cities like Bangalore and Hyderabad, the state has uninterrupted, cheap and good quality power supply coupled besides other facilities make it an ideal destination for IT companies.

Central excise duty exemption for 10 years, zero per cent sales tax on IT products, income tax holiday for five years and 30 per cent rebate even for domestic operations and DGFT registered units were some of the other attractive incentives for IT companies, they said.

The government's promise to allot industry status to software and service units has also egged on the IT industries to evince interest in IT park in the state, the sources added.

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