Odisha not to send revised plan for IT investment region

The Odisha government has ruled out sending a revised proposal for the proposed information technology investment region (ITIR) in the state.

The state IT department has pointed out that since the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) had already cleared the ITIR project, this obviated the need to send any modified proposal.

"Odisha's proposal has already been cleared by a central committee headed by the Cabinet secretary. All queries of the Government of India have been complied with and the proposal was supposed to be placed before the Union Cabinet. Hence, there is no need to send a revised proposal. Our IT minister has already indicated this in a letter to the Union IT minister", said state IT secretary G Srinivas.

It may be noted that chief minister, Naveen Patnaik had written to prime minister, Narendra Modi in October last year to expedite final approval for the ITIR. In his letter, Patnaik pointed out that operationalisation of the ITIR project in Odisha would contribute significantly to the 'Make in India' and 'Digital India' initiatives of the Centre.

The state government had submitted a detailed project report (DPR) to the department of electronics and information technology (DeitY), Government of India, on the ITIR in April 2010.

The ITIR is to be developed on an area of 40 sq km (or around 10,000 acres) between Bhubaneswar and Khurda. The implementation of the proposed ITIR will involve a cost of Rs 17,883 crore.

The region would generate jobs for 0.23 million people and accommodate a population of around 0.54 million. More than 75 per cent of the investment will be made on the public private partnership (PPP) mode.

In the final project report on the ITIR, IL&FS-IDC had included among other things an airport, a global IT training centre, a bio-tech park and a science city spread over 350 acres.

The airport was to be built on an area of about 2,300 acres close to the site of the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Orissa which is being set up over 900 acres of land at Jatni, about 20 km from the city.

The Infovalley project, a hub for IT firms being developed by the state government on over 600 acres of land at Janla on the outskirts of the city, would also be a part of the IT investment region.

The ITIR would be developed in two phases out of which 20 per cent of the investment is committed in the first phase while the balance 80 per cent investment will come in the second phase.

According to the project plan of IL&FS-IDC, 40 per cent area of the ITIR would be earmarked for the processing units of information technology (IT) and ITes sectors (IT enabled services) as well as electronics and hardware manufacturing units.

The remaining 60 per cent area would be devoted to the non-processing facilities like research and development centre, technological institutes of national and international repute.

This apart there would be a central business district, an integrated township comprising social infrastructure facilities like schools, hospitals and shopping malls and external infrastructure like roads.