Odisha wants Wipro to provide timeline for Bhubaneswar project

The state govt is facing flak for the inordinate delay of the project

Peeved with tardy progress of IT major Wipro’s Bhubaneswar project, the Odisha government has summoned the company CEO to meet the state IT minister by this month end and present a detail timeline and future plan of the company’s Development Centre here.

“Since Wipro is playing a major role in the IT sector of the country and associated with the government of Odisha, the minister (IT), Odisha would like to meet you personally at Bhubaneswar for discussion of the road map of Wipro for its growth at Bhubaneswar. I will be happy if you visit Bhubaneswar in the last week of December and appraise the minister (IT) on this matter,” Pradeep Jena, state IT secretary wrote to T K Kurien, chief executive officer, Wipro Ltd.

Even though Wipro’s Bhubaneswar Development Centre in the Infocity SEZ was set up in September, 2012, it is yet to attain the targeted operation scale. Last year, Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik, in a letter to company’s chairman Azim Premji, had sought the intervention of the latter for starting full-fledged operation at the Development Centre. In reply, Kurien had assured that Bhubaneswar Centre will be given the priority and construction of first G+10 block of the project will be completed soon to accommodate the next wave of new projects.

But no progress has been made on this front in last one year, Jena pointed out.

Due to the inordinate delay of the project, the state government is facing embarrassments from different corners including from Comptroller and Accountant General (CAG) for non-utilization of the land allotted to the company in SEZ.

Recently, the Wipro management had turned down a request by the state IT minister to meet Premji at Bangalore. The company had said Premji would be travelling out of Bangalore during the visit of the minister and other state officials to the city.

The state government is very keen to see Wipro flourishing its business in Odisha and establish as a key employment creator for the state in the IT/ITes (enabled services) sectors, Jena added.

It may be noted that the state government had allotted to Wipro 26 acres of land in 2005 to build five towers (G+10) for accommodating 11,000 technical associates.