The Orissa government on Thursday decided to set up an IT Investment Region (ITIR) near Bhubaneswar over an area of 10,000 acres.
The Centre has selected Bhubaneswar as one of the 40 ITIRs planned in the country. It will provide financial assistance for development of infrastructures required for the ITIRs.
The state IT secretary, PK Mahapatra, said the Centre has aksed the state government to prepare the DPR so that fund could be provided for developing the infrastructures of the ITIR.
The detailed project report (DPR) for the Bhubaneswar ITIR will be prepared by IL&FS Infrastructures Ltd in collaboration with the state-owned Industrial Infrastructure Development Corp (IDCO).
The Centre plans to set up the ITIRs in line of the Petroleum, Chemicals & Petrochemicals Investment Region (PCPIRs) in the country to attract investment into the IT sector.
Mahapatra said the government has decided to put in place a new Information & Communication Tehcnologies Policy (ICT) in the state. The last ICT Policy was announced in 2004. The new policy will be formulated after studying the ICT polices of IT-advanced states like Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh, he said.
The chief minister, Naveen Patnaik, on Thursday reviewed the development taking place in the IT sector in the state at a high level meeting. The Infocity-II will come up at Jalna in the outskirt of Bhubaneswar over an area of 500 acres. A sum of Rs 150 crore will be spent for developing the new IT facility.
The government, meanwhile, has asked the IIT Kharagpur, which is preparing the master plan for the greater Bhubaneswar city, to ease the traffic for the Infocity-I. At the meeting it was told that the Software Technology Park (STPI) at Berhampur is going to be functional from the first week of September, 2008. Orissa has two STPIs at Bhubaneswar and Rourkela. Another STIP is coming up at Balasore.
