Sunday, May 20, 2007

IT cos to finally get possession of land

IT cos to finally get possession of land

20 May, 2007 0059 hrs IST
M L Kapur/TIMES NEWS NETWORK

HUBLI: Exactly a year after the IT Investors’ Meet held here to promote Hubli as the next best Tier-II investment destination for the IT/ITeS sector in the state, 11 local and Bangalore-based firms are set to get possession of HDMC land allotted to them at Rayapur.

The last hurdle was cleared at a meeting the HDMC Commissioner P Manivannan had with representatives of the firms here on Friday. He assured them that demarcation of the land allotted to them will be completed in four days and they would be handed over the relevant documents next week.

A senior HDMC official had caused confusion regarding the terms of allotment of land without doing his homework. It was sorted out at the meeting to the satisfaction of both the parties. According to the HDMC’s initial offer, 40% of the cost was to be paid at the time of possession and the remaining in two equal yearly instalments.

But when the HDMC’s proposal came up before the cabinet for clearance, it approved that the land cost will be recovered in two equal instalments. However,while HDMC had demanded interest on the instalment at prevailing market rates, the cabinet has made it without interest.

Manivannan told the representatives, "as long as you are willing to pay interest on the remaining instalment at the prevailing market rates, the number of instalments in which you pay the land cost will not be any problem."

Expressing satisfaction at the flexible terms offered by the HDMC, Sankalp Semiconductor founder and CEO Vivek Pawar said: "We will start construction work within three months of the possession of land and start operations at Rayapur within 18 months."

Pawar, who shifted his Bangalorebased firm to Hubli in June last year to overcome infrastructure bottlenecks and high attrition rate, told the Sunday Times of India: "We took it up as a challenge to develop industry-academia synergy in Hubli."

Functioning at present from the BVB College of Engineering and Technology campus, Pawar said: "We are into the designing of VLSIC chips for hardware, and for start-ups like us industry-academia interaction works to mutual benefit."

He said: "While the engineering college gets to know the industry’s latest requirement, we have easy access to trained manpower. Moreover, we always wanted to add value to Tier-II cities like Hubli so that it attracts more start-ups."

Sankalp Semiconcuctor started its operations in Bangalore in November 2005, and shifted base to Hubli in July 2006, with a highly skilled workforce of 15. At present, it has 45 people on board and plans to expand to 100 by the end of next year.

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