Rahul Wadke

Mumbai , Nov. 17

WITH big guns of the IT industry in India looking beyond Bangalore and Karnataka for their new projects, the Maharashtra Government is gearing up to make most of this windfall.

It wants Pune city and the surrounding areas to be the next IT destination and has zeroed in on Hinjawadi, about 15 km from Pune and just off the Mumbai Pune Expressway, for this.

While the foundation for this new IT zone was laid in 1998 with less than 100 hectares, under the present plan the land availability is to increase 10 fold at Hinjawadi.

Talking to Business Line, Mr V. Jairath, Industries Secretary of Maharashtra, said, "Altogether we have over 1,500 hectares of land at Hinjawadi and we are already in our third phase of development. In this phase about 350 hectares have been available but the demand from the IT industry for land is for about 1,125 hectares, which is five times more than the supply. Therefore, we are now looking at the fourth phase of development".

Infosys, Wipro and Cognizant have already set up their facilities at Hinjawadi. The Government wants to offer more land to these companies as part of their expansion plans. It is the technical workforce coming out of colleges in Pune and the surrounding areas that is drawing these companies to the region, he said.

The IT infrastructure of Hinjawadi is already in place with VSNL connectivity and optical fibre cable network. The State Government is now planning acquire another 1,160 hectares for phases five and six at Hinjawadi.

"Our aim is to create an IT network around Pune with Hinjawadi, Talawade and Kharadi as the new growth centres. Other States have only one city to offer for IT development. But in Maharashtra we have about eight cities where IT companies can set up their business," Mr Jairath, said.

The software park at Talawade located 28 km from Pune and spread over 75 hectares has Syntel and Xansa among its occupants.

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