IT Park project faces Hurdles ?
EVEN AS texcity Coimbatore is fast emerging as the next major destination for information technology and is witnessing some real action on that front, the IT park project proposed by the state government seems to have hit a fresh roadblock. The state-owned Electronics Corporation of Tamil Nadu (Elcot) had acquired around 29.5 acres from Coimbatore Medical College for the proposed special economics zone for information technology to be promoted along with another state agency, Tidco. Some of the IT majors like Wipro and TCS have also evinced interest to have their campuses in this zone. The state government had alloted around 10 acres for Wipro and around 5 acres for TCS.The special economic zone is to have a built-up space of approximately 1.2 million sqft and generate employment for an estimated 12,000 persons. The project is estimated to cost around Rs 240 to Rs 250 crore. Originally, Elcot planned to have a vertical building set-up with 15 floors, including two underground floors for parking facilities. Since the park is close to the airport (which is incidentally expanding its runway), it faced problems in getting a no-objection certificate from the Airports Authority of India (AAI) which stipulated that the height of the proposed building should not exceed 45 metres. They have cited security reasons for the denial of permission.
Now, Elcot is planning to revise the building plan. They have plans to go in for a horizontal set-up (instead of a vertical one) with three underground floors for parking. The corporation will start the construction work only after getting approval for the new design from the department of town and country planning, Chennai. It has been three years since the site within the Coimbatore Medical College campus has been identified. Meanwhile, a number of players in the information technology industry, who had evinced keen interest in taking this space are said to be exploring space in private IT parks proposed in the city
