Hyd set to see 25 mn sft IT space

NSL Infratech developing 9 million sft in the city.

NSL Infratech Private Limited, a subsidiary of Hyderabad-based Nuziveedu Seeds group, is developing around 11 million square feet office space in three IT SEZs with an investment of over Rs 2,000 crore. This would be ready over the next four years.

Of this, the company has proposed to build 9 million sft in two SEZs situated at Hyderabad and another 2.2 million sft in its Noida SEZ, said Shrawan Kumar Gone, chief executive officer of NSL Infratech.

While the Uppal IT SEZ with 5 million sft space is coming up with an investment of close to Rs 800 crore, the one at Rayadurg near the existing IT corridor is being developed with Divyashree Developers on an equal partnership basis. The company is developing the Rs 450 crore Noida project on its own, he said.

 

The company has already built 1.2 million sft office space in Rayadurg which it has leased out to companies such as Invesco and 700,000 sft in Uppal SEZ, half of which has been leased out to smaller IT companies. The company is currently developing a tower (800,000 sft) as part of the Noida project.

Speaking to the media on Saturday, Gone said the company was bringing in 50 per cent funds via equity and the rest was being raised from a consortium of banks as debt. So far, it has spent about Rs 340 crore on the Hyderabad projects.

He said the company was not expecting any long-term impact of the ongoing political unrest involving the demand for separate statehood for Telangana on the growth prospects of the IT sector in Hyderabad.

Interestingly, the larger of the two projects is located in the eastern part of the city, which is yet to get popular recognition as the second IT hub as has been envisaged by the Andhra Pradesh government. Gone said the Uppal region would soon emerge as the second Hitec City with Infosys ramping up operations at its new campus located in the vicinity in a big way.

Residential projects
Apart from the commercial space, the company is also undertaking four residential projects — two in Hyderabad and one each in Bangalore and Chennai — with a total asset value of Rs 4,000 crore.

The Chennai project is coming up on 100 acre comprising 5,000 residential units while the Bangalore project will have 900 units. In Hyderabad, a 136 residential apartment project is proposed at Kukatpally and a 66-luxury villa project at Gachibowli.

The company has a total land bank of 1,400 acres in Bangalore, Chennai, Noida and Gurgaon, and expects to get Rs 1,500 crore in revenues from its residential projects in the next five years.

IT space in Hyderabad
In the next 2-3 years, about 25 million sft IT space is coming up in Hyderabad, said Sanjay Jaju, secretary, state IT & Communications, while denying any adverse impact of the recent political turmoil on the IT sector.

Speaking to the media on the sidelines of a meeting with representatives of IT companies on the issue of promoting eastern city as the next destination for IT operations, Jaju said about 4 million sft IT space was occupied by companies in 2010, which is perceived to be the most troublesome year after the revival of the Telangana movement.

IT companies alone occupy about 55 million sft office space in Hyderabad. Large-scale construction of new office space in and around the city and the massive expansion plans of existing IT companies suggest that the Hyderabad IT sector is largely untouched by political agitations, he said.

The eastern part of the city surrounding Uppal is one of the three areas, apart from the existing Hitec City and the areas close to international airport, envisaged to be developed under the 55,000-acre wide IT Investment region proposed by the state government.

State IT minister Ponnala Laxmaiah said the Centre was about to declare the IT Investment Region with a grant of over Rs 2,000 crore for developing the external infrastructure in these three areas.

Infosys recently informed the state government that its 430-acre campus located at Pocharam near Uppal would be developed as the largest IT campus in the entire South Asia, the minister said.

About 1 million IT space is already available in different projects located in eastern Hyderabad, he said, stating the connectivity with this part of the city would be as good as that in the Hitec City.

Nasscom, the association of Indian IT companies, is launching a massive training programme for graduates and aspiring IT professionals with a target to train 100,000 students in the next one year in AP, according to officials.