As Infy announces pulling out, IT park still a non-starter

It looks like the Devanahalli IT park will not be up and running any time soon.

Infrastructure facilities like roads and water are still not in place in the park, where prominent IT companies, including Infosys, were allotted land on its 1,400-acre expanse during the Global Investors’ Meet 2010. The land was handed over to the firms in 2012.
 Infosys recently expressed its intention of surrendering 60 acres it has in the park, on the grounds that it lacks road and water facilities. The IT bellwether said it had decided to pull out of a software development project in the park, having job opportunities for 20,000 people.

It had deposited 20 per cent of the total cost of the land with the Karnataka Industrial Areas Development Board, sources said. Infosys has sought upgrading the road passing via Bagalur to the airport or building a parallel road through Nagawara. Nearly 20 km of road has to be laid.

Road construction will have to be done by the BBMP and so far there is no proposal in this regard, sources said.
 Officials said no other company has demanded infrastructure facilities for immediate use of the land. According to IT&BT Minister S R Patil, nearly 150 companies have purchased land at the park. Land acquisition in certain parts of the proposed IT park is under litigation. Yet, there is huge demand for land there.The government had decided to provide only treated water to the IT park.

The BWSSB plans to provide treated water from Chellaghatta and Hebbal valleys. But, work on these projects is nowhere near completion.  
Patil said that the company had no plans to move out of Karnataka, but proposed to establish its new facility at Electronics City, where it already has a campus.
 “I have scheduled a meeting with the representatives of Infosys at 9.30 am on Thursday at my residence. I will listen to their grievances and place them before the chief minister at the State high-level clearance committee meeting to be held at 12 noon. Representatives of civic agencies will also be present. We will see whether a solution can be worked out, so that Infosys reconsiders its decision,” he said.