HCL Tech's Covid-hit 100-acre Lucknow project gets six months' extension

Phase-1 completed on time; phase-II had to be halted for nearly two months, and the pace of work remained sub-optimal during subsequent lockdown periods as well

The Covid-hit 100-acre Lucknow IT City project of HCL Technologies has been granted six months’ extension for completion by the Uttar Pradesh cabinet.

Under the concession agreement signed between the state government and HCL, the IT major is entitled to a host of incentives if the project is completed within the stipulated timeframe.

HCL Lucknow IT City project is the largest HCL campus in North India and offers a spectrum of services including infrastructure management, application development, product engineering, BPO and HCL internal enabling functions.

Whereas phase-I of the HCL IT City project was completed in time, phase-II faced hiccups owing to lockdown. The Covid-19 pandemic not only halted the project for nearly two months, the pace of work remained sub-optimal during the subsequent lockdown periods as well.

 

The company had urged the Yogi Adityanath government to extend the stipulated time period for six months. The UP IT and electronics department had recommended the same to the cabinet, which last evening gave its seal of approval to the extension proposal.

HCL Lucknow had started its operations in Oct 2016 and is part of HCL’s strategic vision to expand and create opportunities in smaller cities across India. So far, the company has invested more than Rs 500 crore in the Lucknow project, which serves over 100 global clients, of which nearly 70 per cent are based in the US. 

The Adityanath government is keenly promoting the IT and new age sectors, such as data centres in the state, especially in the Eastern and Central regions for balanced growth beyond the National Capital Region (NCR) hubs of Noida and Greater Noida.

Meanwhile, the UP cabinet allowed the UP Cooperative Federation Limited (UPCFL) to borrow Rs 400 crore loan to pay farmers against paddy purchase in the ongoing kharif marketing season. The state will stand as guarantor for the loan.

The government is targetting total purchase of 5.5 million tonnes (MT) of paddy. So far, the state agencies have procured nearly 4.7 MT of paddy.