India’s Top Tech Parks

TECHNO PARK, JAIPUR : Under the Sun

RAJASTHAN’S INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY park
at Sitapura near Jaipur was set up by its industrial development body, the
Rajasthan State Industrial Development and Investment Corporation (RIICO), in
1997-98. The park has all the makings for a bustling software center. Rajasthan,
in fact, was one of the first states in the country to put up state-of-the-art
infrastructure to facilitate the growth of the IT industry.

Spread over an area of 80 acres, the IT park has all necessary infrastructure
facilities, which has helped companies to commence operations in small gestation
periods. For instance, high-speed communication facilities through an earth
station are available for IT units. The station also enables the use of the
Internet as well as international private leased lines. 

The station has been promoted by RIICO in association with the Software
Technology Park of India. Forty plots have been planned in the park. Five units
are operational in the park, while two are in the implementation stage.

MAHINDRA CITY, CHENNAI :
Do Your Own Thing

HOW ABOUT working for an IT company that
is tucked away from the urban chaos, surrounded by hills, lakes et al. Or how
about taking some breaks between work everyday to play a game of tennis or go
fishing? If it sounds out of context, the chances are you have not seen Mahindra
City near Chennai yet, spread across 1,440 acres of green landscape. Jointly
promoted by Mahindra & Mahindra (M&M), IL&FS and TIDCO, M&M has
51% stake, while the other two promoters have 38% and 11% respectively. With an
investment of Rs 170 crore till now, Mahindra City is probably one of the first
of its kind in India to be executed on such a large scale. Mahindra City offers
three options to IT companies - campus, built to suit, and ready built. Under
the campus format, companies can buy the land and develop their own structures.
If a company decides to go for the built to suit option, the design and other
needs are carried out as specified by the client. The city will also have a
200,000 sq ft ready built structure aimed at IT and BPO companies. Within a span
a nine months since its inauguration in September 2002, the promoters have got
good response. The officials’ claim that large chunks of land will soon be
occupied by premium IT companies. Mahindra City also offers other infrastructure
necessities like unlimited bandwidth, 24/7 power, ample car parking, food courts
and well laid out roads. And all these say one thing - for those tired of
residing in concrete jungles–move into Mahindra City.

CIDCO INFOTECH PARK, VASHI-BELAPUR:
Unequal Twins

THESE
ARE twin projects that have been promoted by CIDCO at Navi Mumbai.
The more popular one is the International Infotech Park, located above the Vashi
railway station, where companies like ICICI Infotech, Tracmail and Sify are
housed. Situated right above the station, it is geographically convenient as it
reduces employees’ travel time. Other means of public transport are also
available from the park. There is also a proposal to build an international
airport at a distance of 8 km from the park in the near future. The data
communication network provides high speed and high bandwidth connections to the
companies present in the park through a satellite earth station and fiber optic
cables. The Belapur facility is occupied by Wipro Spectramind, its only
technology occupant. Steep municipal taxes and high parking costs (around Rs 700
is charged per vehicle every month) are the disadvantages. Complaints about
insufficient safety measures and the lack of responsiveness on the part of CIDCO
have also been cited as reasons for the lukewarm reaction to the park. Both the
parks are close to the Mumbai-Pune Knowledge Corridor that connects Mumbai and
Pune.

GNFC INFOTOWER:
Half-way Full

STAMP DUTY exemption, special incentives
under the IT policy and competitive prices were some of the promises that the
Gujarat government had made when setting up GNFC Infotower. But, instead,
occupants have to face police inquiries regarding their working at night and
mass recruitment programs. Though an embarrassed government reprimanded the
illiterate and ignorant police officials, the damage had already been done. Two
years into this incident, the tower is only 50% occupied but GNFC officials are
confident that as soon as new investment flows into the state, there will be a
demand for more space in technology parks like GNFC Infotower. The ignorance
aside, the park has a lot going for it. It has a 5,000-line BSNL exchange,
captive power back up and offers good bandwidth. Besides, there is a centrally
air-conditioned system installed that two chiller units of 200 tonne capacity
each. Plus, its vicinity to Ahmedabad is another advantage. So far, six
companies have set up offices. The majority of them are call centers, a booming
business that is now coming up in Gujarat. GNFC Online, one of the leading
Internet service providers in the state, has its office in the tower.

GUJARAT INFOCITY:
Bouncing Back

THE VIOLENCE in Godhra has taken a heavy
toll on Gujarat, but the state seems to be bouncing back. Gujarat’s IT
showcase–the Rs 236-crore Infocity–faced trouble a number of times.
Nonetheless, the authorities feel strong investments and a revival in business
interest will help the park take off soon enough. The contract for building the
Infocity was handed over to Florida-based Creative IT Incorporated after a
global bid. The plan is to build not just plug-and-play offices like the GNFC
Infotower, but a complete township that will offer all world-class amenities.
The government’s equity is the land and the project is being carried out on a
BOT basis. The state has adopted a flexible approach as far as pricing of the
land and the design of the park is concerned. In case the design and the
ambience of the readymade tower are not in tune with the aesthetics of an
investing company, it has the freedom to purchase or lease land and build its
own infrastructure. And this is perhaps the first techpark that is offering
kickstart call center options, which roughly translates into overnight addition
or setting up of call centers. The other benefits, as elucidated by the state
government, include unmatched cost of space and working hours.

TALAWADE TECH PARK:
Promising Ahead

VERDANT
GREEN fields surround the Talawade Tech Park, situated near the banks
of the river Indrayani. Located around 22-odd km from the main city of Pune, the
park was among the first private enterprises in Pune to have made a bid to woo
software companies to work from India. The 190-acre tech park was earlier a
private enterprise but was later taken over by the Maharashtra Industrial
Development Corporation (MIDC) when the private players did not succeed in
selling the idea to US software companies. But the entry of Kanbay changed the
picture. Kanbay India is Kanbay’s largest development center. The company’s
e-solutions center in Pune houses almost 1,100 employees. Now, Syntel has
announced plans to set up a 40-acre technology campus while Xansa has taken 16
acres at the park. However, its distance from the city remains a major hassle
for those working at the park owing to the dismal public transportation system.
Thus, Kanbay runs its own buses and so does Xansa, which is yet to begin
operations there. Lack of branded food outlets and entertainment facilities near
the campus makes it strictly a work place for the present. A
utility-cum-recreational center at a centrally located plot, with facilities
like a gym, shopping center, library and a swimming pool, is also planned.

STPI, MOHALI:
Going the Extra Mile

MOHALI
DOES not have a park in the league of Bangalore and
Thiruvananthapuram, but for companies keen on setting up operations, STPI Mohali
would go that extra mile to make the venture a successful one, right from help
in procuring land and getting all clearances to providing bandwidth, et al.
Already, companies like Infosys and IDS Infotech have set operations, and Quark
Media boasts of its 700-strong development center, the only one in India.
However, barring a few high profile names like these, STPI Mohali doesn’t have
much to show. For one, there is no centralized tech park environment, as most of
the IT units are spread all over the town. The Punjab government is providing
industrial land to IT companies at Rs 700 per sq mtr. A lot of built-up space is
available in Mohali for rent, with prices ranging between Rs 5 and 15 per sq ft,
depending on the location. There is 60 Mbps of total bandwidth available with
STPI Mohali. The key advantages to setting up a unit in Mohali are quality of
life, easy and abundant infrastructure facilities, and good availability of
highly skilled manpower. The airport is 10 km away and Mohali is 12 km away from
Chandigarh city center. To commute, auto rickshaws can be hired and buses ply.
Chandigarh was recently rated by CII as third-best city to do business in, after
Delhi and Greater Mumbai, while a recent study by Gartner rated Chandigarh as
the city with the best telecom infrastructure.

Note: Stars at the beginning of the writeups denote the final
rating–on a scale on 1 to 5. This is not a comprehensive listing, and only
those parks that chose to participate and fulfilled the three-pronged criteria
have been included. Some parks have not been rated.

METHODOLOGY

The survey was carried out in three stages. In the first stage, a
questionnaire was sent to technology parks themselves, seeking information on
various parameters–total area; ratio of built-up area to total area; lease and
rent rates; capacity; number of companies in the park; distances from city
center and airports; IT infrastructure; power and water availability etc.

In the second phase, questionnaires were sent out to the three largest
companies housed in each of these tech parks. From these companies, we took
qualitative feedback on parameters that included convenience with respect to
distances from city center and airport and frequency of public transport;
connectivity; quality of physical infrastructure like power and water; easy
access to customs and STP officials; general ambience and building design. We
also asked companies to give an overall rating to the Tech Parks on a scale of 1
to 5–and mention key drawbacks and strengths of the park.

In the third and final phase, our correspondents personally visited each of
these tech parks, met with the heads of these institutions and spoke to
companies housed there. A composite score from the various parameters–both
quantitative and qualitative–was then used to arrive at the final ratings,
which are presented as star ratings with the writeups

We also attempted to compare apples-to-apples. So single, standalone
buildings were not included in the survey, nor were places like Mahindra City in
Chennai (a completely new concept) or Electronics City in Bangalore–essentially
a real-estate holder.

Team DQ