Villages turning inot IT hub at Coimbatore
Kalapatti and Saravanampatti, two villages about 15 km from Coimbatore, have become favourite spots for private IT special economic zone developers. Till the late eighties, these villages were best known for agriculture. Today, however, agriculture has failed. And these two partly industrialiased locations are better known as the “twin IT villages of the textile city”. Land prices have zoomed. Today, an acre costs anywhere between Rs 1.25 crore to 1.5 crore, according to data available with the Builders’ Association of India (BAI). Two years back, the going rate was Rs 50,000-75,000 per acre. Commercial: IT seems to be the only driving force on the commercial front. With at least two major companies — Bannari Technopark and KG Information Systems (KGISL) — acquiring land for their IT projects recently, the land in these two villages has suddenly turned into a gold mine for farmers, who never had it so good.Some of the corporates located in Saravanampatti are KGISL, Bosch, Cognizant, Spheris, CRI pumps while Kalapatti is home to Sharp Pumps. The Rs 1,200-crore Bannari Amman Group plans to develop an IT SEZ across 78 acres at Kalapatti while KGISL has acquired around 160 acres near its existing campus at Saravanampatti for developing an ITeS SEZ. Presidium Constructions, a high-end residential property developer, is coming up with an IT park in a joint venture with a major multi-national company. The Rs 40-crore IT park will have a built-up area of two lakh sq ft.The per sq ft cost in these villages work out to about Rs 2,500. Residential: These two villages are well-connected to the best of engineering and arts colleges, schools and health care centres. Besides this, their growing reputation as emerging IT hubs of Coimbatore, has meant that residential projects are getting lapped up with ease.Housing projects are also going on at a brisk pace. Tristar is developing its apartment Triveni West at Saravanampatti. Observers feel that with the main city becoming out of reach of the common man, these villages offer an affordable option for a majority of the salaried classes and small-time businessmen.
