IT in Hubli gets jumpstart

IT in Hubli gets jumpstart
M L Kapur - TIMES NEWS NETWORK

18 Jan, 2007 0106hrs IST

HUBLI: It is all clear now for the launch of Hubli on the IT map of Karnataka as a Tier-II investment destination. The state cabinet has finally approved the proposal of Hubli Dharwad Municipal Corporation to allot 53 acres of its land to IT/ITeS companies.

Revenue and district in-charge minister Jagadish Shettar told 'The Times of India' on Wednesday that "the cabinet approved the HDMC proposal at its meeting last Thursday. The allotment letters to selected IT/ITeS companies will be issued in due course".

This welcome development for north Karnataka comes nearly eight months after the IT Investors' Meet held here in May last year to project Hubli as a Tier-II investment destination for IT/ITeS sector in view of the overstretched civic infrastructure and land scarcity in Bangalore.

Soon after the investors' meet, HDMC had set apart the land for IT/ITeS companies through a resolution unanimously adopted at its council meeting. Implementing the resolution, it had sent the proposal to the government in July 2006 for its approval.

But initially, the finance and urban development departments objected that the HDMC land couldn't be allotted at a pre-determined price. In case it is to be alienated, it has to be through open auction and not by allotment. Only the government can overrule this provision, it was contended.

Later, former law minister and opposition leader in the legislative council, H K Patil, wanted the same land at Rayapur in between Hubli and Dharwad to be alloted for the proposed Karnataka Law University, expected to become functional from the next academic session.

The HDMC's IT land allotment committee had originally recommended 25 acres of land each to Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) and Quest. But TCS declined the offer saying its requirement was 50 acres, and that too in an IT-specific SEZ. Quest also backed out after waiting for five months.

The HDMC later recommended the allotment of land declined by TCS to some other IT/ITeS firms. The better known among them are the Bangalore-based electronics software design company Sankalp Semiconductor, and NS Infotech, a BPO start-up operating from Hubli.

It is learnt that the selected companies were being offered land at Rs 10 lakh per acre. The proposal could not be cleared at the cabinet meeting held on December 28 in view of objections from H K Patil that the land was being offered to IT/ITeS companies at "throwaway prices."

The HDMC had recommended that the land, which is totally undeveloped, be allotted at the rate of Rs 8 lakh per acre. It was based on the fact that across the road from this site KIADB is selling fully developed land at the rate of Rs 10.6 lakh per acre.