TN to aggressively promote tier II IT centres

TRICHY: Tamil Nadu government wants to aggressively promote IT and IT enabled services in tier II destinations like Coimbatore, Trichy, Madurai, Salem, Tirunvelveli and Hosur. While the state owned Elcot promoted IT SEZ is ready in Combatore, work has started for other centres.

In the upcoming IT SEZs in these centres the State government has decided to allot small land parcels to small and medium enterprises (SMEs) to encourage them to set up units, state IT minister Poongothai Aladi Aruna said.

At a Nasscom-organised event — Empower IT — to promote Trichy as a tier II IT destination held in Trichy on Friday, she told reporters the state has taken a policy decision to allot one acre or so to give an impetus to SMEs.

Ms Poongothai said the government has already invested Rs 560 crore in creating infrastructure in potential tier II destinations — Trichy, Madurai and Tirunelveli.

The Tidel park in Coimbatore would commence operation early 2010. Land to the extent of 16.30 acre was still available in the textile city, she said, seeking to highlight opportunities for expansion in such locations.

Likewise, in Madurai, the park on 28.91 acres at Illandaikulam has already attracted a host of players like Honeywell, HCL (5 acres each) and Tessolve (2.5 acres). In this location too, an area of ten acres is available, the minister said noting that four companies have evinced interest in setting up their operations in Salem where 30 acres land was available.

Partnerning with Nasscom and nodal agency Elcot, the state government has embarked on many initiatives, including student meets, to promote IT in tier II destinations. The scope of rural BPO is tremendous in such places, she said.

Companies like Infosys, Cognizant, Wipro, Hov Services, Sutherland, Ramco Systems, UST Global, Reliance BPO and Hexaware, to name a few, were among the 40 representatives invited to boiler town Trichy to recruit talent and set up their operations.