Hyderabad: The Telangana government appears to have given up its hopes on the Centre helping it build a massive IT Investment Region, and is seriously working on setting up 11 IT parks on its own on city outskirts as an alternative. The city already has 30 IT parks.
Despite reminders from the TS government seeking financial assistance for the ITIR granted by the UPA government in 2013, there has been no response from the NDA government.
The state government is now planning to build the IT parks to ensure that there is no hindrance to growth here. It has expedited the process of identifying land and making allotment for the parks.
IT minister K.T. Rama Rao, while releasing a report on the state government’s performance in the IT sector the other day, expressed concern saying, “While we have sought Rs 7,000 crore for ITIR, it gave only Rs 65 crore. What will we do with that?”
His remarks drew instant criticism from Union labour minister Bandaru Dattatreya, who said the TS government had not submitted a detailed project report. This prompted Mr Rama Rao, to call on Mr Dattatreya last week and hand over the DPR saying it had been submitted to the Centre long ago.
He said Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao and he himself had visited Delhi several times to pursue the case with Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union ministers.
Indications that the Modi government is not keen on pusuing the ITIR projects approved by the UPA. Hence the TS government came to a conclusion that it would be better to do things on its own.
Following the Chief Minister’s directions, Mr Rama Rao and Deputy CM Mohd Mahmood Ali discussed the availability of land for IT parks. It was proposed to allot 50 acres to each IT park. Already 84 acres have been identified in Rajendranagar.
“We have identified land in Miyapur, Puppalguda, Bachupally, Kismatpura, Premavathipet, Himayatsagar, Dundigal, Bowrampeta, Tellapur and directed revenue officials to speed up allotments," said a senior revenue official.
IT officials said several firms were coming forward to set up their units in the city after the announcement of the state’s IT policy.
