Hubli ITpark fails to take off

The Information Technology Park here built at a cost of Rs 40 crore has failed to attract major software companies. The park that had come up at Tirakaramanakere two and half years ago is lying unused.

The IT Park inaugurated by the then Union minister for information technology Pramod Mahajan was expected to boost the IT-related activities in North Karnataka. Inaugurated with much hype the park has remained a showpiece.

The Hubli arm of Karnataka Chamber of Commerce and Industry has expressed concern over the state of the IT Park and urged the authorities to take steps to attract major players in the software industry.

The IT Park has power backup, capsule lifts, a parking lot and videoconferencing. It houses the Software Technology Park of India-Hubli. With its high-speed satellite gateway with a capacity of 1Mbps, the STP Hubli can provide Internet services up to Davanagere, Shimoga, Gulbarga and Belgaum.

While Tata Teleservices has occupied 12,000 sqft, RMS Technologies has occupied 600 sq ft in the IT Park. The remaining 1.6 lakh sq ft of space has had no takers.

Minister for science and technology Basavaraj Horatti who is from Hubli visited the IT Park soon after taking over as minister and tried to get the things set right. But his efforts did not receive any encouragement from the government.

On the contrary, the chairperson of KEONICS Manjula objected to the minister's intervention in the IT Park's affairs.

M K Shankarlinge Gowda, secretary to the state government, department of information technology and biotechnology visited Hubli in August 2004 and held discussions with entrepreneurs and educationists on breathing life into the park. He had hinted at holding an IT Fair at Hubli. But nothing happened after that.

The KCCI feels that the huge infrastructure built at a cost of Rs 40 crore is going waste and the government is not doing enough to set it on the functioning mode.