The Himachal government on Tuesday gave nod for setting up Information Technology Park at Waknaghat planning area in Solan district on build, own, and operate (BOO) basis. The clearance for the project came during the meeting of the state cabinet, headed by chief minister Prem Kumar Dhumal.
Dhumal cleared the proposal and approved the proposed guidelines under Rule 10-A and 10-B of the Himachal Pradesh Town and Country Planning Rules, 1978, for development of Information Technology Park in Waknaghat planning area in district Solan.
Highly placed sources in the Himachal chief minister?s office told FE that the park will be spread over 106 acres. The IT department has already acquired the patch of land at Waknaghat. Officials say the IT Park will involve an initial expense of Rs 500 crore in the first stage.
The government has so far acquired 76 acres of land, in four different chunks, at Waknaghat of which 9 acres is located on the highway leading to Shimla at Dumeha while 13 acres is located at a distance of 3 kms from the highway, 32 acres at a distance of 5 kms from highway and remaining 12 acres falls on link road from Solan to Waknaghat. The land would be offered to the bidding company on long term lease basis for which the state has called expression of interest.
Sources told that at least twelve companies have shown interest in providing consultancy services for preparing a plan and costs for setting up Himachal Pradesh?s first Information Technology. These include DLF Universal Limited and Parsvanath Developers of Delhi, SKIL Infrastructure Limited, Mumbai, RVRCL Infrastructure, Hyderabad, Uppal Housing Private Limited, New Delhi, Maheshwari Mega Ventures Limited, Hyderabad and Omaxe Infrastructure City Development, New Delhi , among others. It is worth mentioning that Himachal Pradesh offers income tax exemption to the units for first five years and 30% rebate thereafter. In addition, the state government gives 15% capital subsidy on plant and machinery while there exists a Sales Tax holiday in the state. The Information Technology has already been declared a thrust industry by the government.
Sources said the state government is working on a unique model under which it will provide land to the developer on long lease as per the competitive bidding and thereafter it would offer three option to the developers for their operations.