Bangalore’s loss is Hubli’s gain

Bangalore’s loss is Hubli’s gain

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

BANGALORE: The expansion of IT industry is seeing an increased focus on tier-II cities with state governments increasingly promoting these as the next investment destination.
The Karnataka government is looking at Hubli as one of the important tier-II places for IT companies through various incentives and holding an investment meet.
The state government will be offering space at the IT park in Hubli at Rs 10 per sq ft as a limited period offer . The IT park at Hubli has 2.75 lakh sq ft space available and the first 50,000 sq ft space will be given away at Rs 10 per sq ft and the next 15,000 sq ft at Rs 15 per sq ft. However , this will be open only for a limited period of six months.
The state government will hold an IT investors meet on May 20 and has invited over 150 companies and big players such as Infosys, Wipro, IBM, 24/7 customer have confirmed their participation. It will also see the participation of Nasscom president Kiran Karnik.
Addressing mediap e r s o n s here on Tu e s d a y, state revenue minister Jagdish Shettar said that the government was interested in attracting IT investments into tier-II cities as Bangalore has become ‘congested’ . State officials expect higher proportion of ITeS companies to set up their operations in Hubli as it has got an annual graduate pool of around 17,000.
However, the STPI park in Hubli has about 9 units operating registering exports of Rs 5 crore for FY06.