ELCOT to open IT parks in Tier II cities in TN

Tiruchirapalli, Jul 19: State-owned Electronics Corporation of Tamil Nadu (ELCOT) will be expanding its IT park establishment activities in Tier II cities like Tiruchirapalli, Madurai, Salem, Tirunelveli and Hosur shortly, Managing Director C Umasankar said.

He told newsmen here yesterday that ELCOT will build 50,000 sq ft of office space in each of the proposed IT Parks with each building costing about Rs 15 crore.

The total built-up space in the two parks in Madurai would be around 1.25 lakh sq ft, including about 25,000 sq ft for Disaster Recovery Centre. The second IT Park in Chennai would get ten million sq ft of office space.

IT majors would get priority in allotment of plots in the Tiruchirapalli IT Park.

Explaining the rationale behind the move, he said smaller and start-up companies may require a longer gestation period, hampering the development of the IT Park itself.

It was usual for bigger companies to be accorded priority as anchors. Sutherland Global Services and Cognizant Technology Solutions have already been allotted 10 acres each at the Park.

To a question, he said the ELCOT had sought another 120 acre of land for the IT Park in addition to the 165 acre allotted at Navalpattu on the outskirts of the Tiruchirapalli City.

''We have planned to acquire lands contiguous to the existing site,'' he said.

ELCOT would launch a human resources campaign in Madurai, Tiruchirapalli and Salem between October and December aimed at helping IT companies tap local human resource potential and giving exposure to the students,he added.

UNI