78 Acres IT SEZ by Bannari Amman Group
Rs 1,200 crore-plus Bannari Amman Group plans to develop an IT SEZ over 78 acres at Kalapatty village.The Bannari Amman Techno Park, as the project is called, has got formal approvals for around 60 acres and the remaining process is likely to be completed in the next few months. The project would be on a build, operate and transfer (BOT) basis and would be located on land owned by the company. Along with other similar projects, this would give IT a big push in the textile city. ‘‘We are negotiating with some of the developers based in Bangalore and Chennai and are planning to lease it out to all IT companies on a long-term lease basis,’’ Mr S V Balasubramaniam, group chairman, told.Bannari Amman is a diversified group with interests in sugar, textiles, education, food processing, granites, power generation, transportation, distillery and automobile distribution. It would appear that Coimbatore is on the threshold of becoming the next ideal IT destination in the state after Chennai. Apart from the IT SEZ planned by the Electronics Corporation of Tamil Nadu (Elcot), leading corporates in the region are also gearing up to enter the fray. Sources say that city-based Salzer Group, manufacturers of switch gears, is also planning to develop a one-lakh sqft IT park on a build, operate and transfer (BOT) basis in association with a US-based consulting service provider. Also, KG Group, a well-known name in healthcare and IT industry, has acquired around 160 acres near its existing campus at Saravanampatty for developing it as an ITeS SEZ.
