BANGALORE: The Karnataka government’s plan to set up a mega technology centre on the outskirts of Bangalore city has elicited keen interest from various players including the Ambani brothers.
The proposed 10,000-acre “Knowledge City” , a self-contained township, has already received 32 bids which include three firms from Singapore and also from Mukesh and Anil Ambani. The State IT & BT Secretary Mr MN Vidyashankar said that the Knowledge City project is expected to house many technology companies which are on the expansion mode from diverse segments such as IT, biotech and nano-technology .
The project which will work under the public private partnership (PPP) model where the government will only act as the facilitator for providing land while the complete infrastructure will be provided by the private parties. The winning bidders for the project are likely to be known by March 2007.
Vidyashankar said that the project would be taken up in phases and only a certain portion of the land will be given in the first tranche.
This could also see the first part of the project being thrown up for companies by the end of next year.
The Knowledge City will see 5,000 acres being reserved for the technology sector while the rest will be for civic amenities. The Secretary said that this project will ensure balanced growth of Bangalore as the city has its tech hubs in Southern and Eastern regions and this could decongest with centre coming up in the Western part.
Further, Knowledge City would be connected to the upcoming international airport where an IT hardware park is also being planned.
The Bangalore Metropolitan Region Development Authority will be the facilitator for the project.
