Tidel Wave: New-Age IT Parks

The concept of a Knowledge Industrial Township, which will have housing,
school hospital and other facilities, thus offering a 'walk to work'
environment, is catching on. And the Tamil Nadu government is going all out to
popularize it, with five more Tidel Parks to come up in tier-two cities in the
state

The Tamil Nadu government would be promoting Tidel Parks, on the lines of the
one in Chennai, in all the tier-two towns to take the IT boom to the emerging
cities.

Dr C Chandramouli, IT Secretary, Tamil Nadu, said that the parks would be
promoted through private-public partner­ship (PPP) model and would be completed
in the next 12 to 14 months. “Tidel Parks would be operational in all the
tier-two cities such as Madurai, Tirunelveli, Salem, Hosur and Trichy,” he
said adding that all would have one million sq ft of built-up space.

Tidel Park, one of the largest software parks in Tamil Nadu, was set up in Chennai by the government agency TIDCO in the late 1990s to foster the growth of information technology in the state of Tamil Nadu. It has a built-up area of 1.28 million sq ft with centralized air-conditioning and an independent power supply.

Chandramouli said that Electronics Corporation of Tamil Nadu (ELCOT), a body
under the Tamil Nadu government, which facilitates the IT Parks, was scouting
for private partners for the upcoming projects. C Umashankar, MD, ELCOT said
that land had been identified for all the projects in tier-two cities.

“In Madurai, we have identified 50 acre in Chinna Illanthukudi and another
257 acre at Vadapalani village in front of Madurai Kamaraj University,” he
said. The project would be a KIT, which will have housing, school, hospital and
other facilities, thus offering a 'walk to work' environment.

Umashankar also informed of an IT Park at Hosur at 1,000 acre, which will also
be on the lines of KIT, apart from the state government's plans to expand the
Trichy Park by another 500 acre, due to demand from the industry.

The ELCOT Chief also informed of 900 acre being earmarked another two places
in the state, which is to be promoted for the IT sector, but refused to name of
the places.

Meanwhile, Umashankar also informed that the government has decided to enable
all the top government officials with laptops in a bid to make them
computer-savvy.

“The government of Tamil Nadu has decided to procure 320 laptops to be
given to all the top executives heading various departments, across the state,”
he informed adding, “Rs 50 lakh have been allocated for this purpose.”

Indications are that the officials would be provided laptops along with
printers, electronic signature pads, digital cameras and other accessories.

The state government is also actively considering usage of open source
software as compared to the proprietary ones. The move is aimed at gearing the
government officials before the National e-Governance Plan (NeGP) is announced.

'Interestingly, the Tidel Park provides state-of-the-art network
connectivity with direct satellite uplink. It is situated in Taramani, and is
well connected to all parts of the city.

It currently hosts several software, telecommunications and BPO companies
including: Tata Consultancy Services, Verizon Data Services India, Computer
Associates, Satyam Computer Services, i-Nautix, Sify, Cognizant Technology
Solutions, HCL Technologies, Kumaran Systems, Electronic Data Systems and SCM
Microsystems among many others.

DQC NEWS BUREAU