Bhatia plans Nanocity in Haryana

Hotmail co-founder Sabeer Bhatia has embarked on an ambitious plan to set up the multi-billion dollar Nanocity near Panchkula in Haryana for which he is close to signing a deal with two or three real estate funds.

Nanocity, which would replicate the Silicon Valley, would be ready for occupation by 2010 and would have top infrastructure facilities besides housing several knowledge industries.

"Nanocity will be much bigger than the Silicon Valley. The success of Silicon Valley is because of two world-class educational institutions "" Stanford and Berkeley. And we intend to have world-class educational institutions in Nanocity," Bhatia told PTI.

Already, $300 million have been invested for land acquisition and an additional $1.2-1.5 billion investment would be needed for development of infrastructure like roads and sewage system, he said.

Nanocity would be spread over 11,138 acres. It is located 25 km east of Chandigarh. Bhatia said that so far he has not contemplated applying for special economic zone status.

Nanocity is promoted by the Haryana State Industrial and Infrastructure Development Corporation.

"The idea of building the Nanocity is to develop a sustainable city with world class infrastructure and to create an ecosystem for innovation leading to economy, ecology and social cohesion," he said.

About 50 per cent of the area in Nanocity has been earmarked for development of parks and upkeep of open spaces.

The Nanocity has been divided into four districts: information technology IT, university, airport and biotech for administrative control.

The IT district would house IT companies, a promenade, golf course, market square, amphi theatre, central and link park. The university district would have a campus, cricket stadium, culture and arts. The airport district would have convention centres, hotels warehouse and industry. The biotech district would house a medical centre, eco centre, horse race track, resort, eco park and biotechnolgies.

The urban structure in Nanocity would be developed as "mixed-use buildings". The ground floors would be devoted to business and trade while the upper floors would be allocated for residential use.

On the power front, Nanocity would opt for solar energy, wind, geothermal and biomass. "We may get energy from Himachal Pradesh. American power company AES Corporation is looking at it," Bhatia said. For water, the city would use techniques such as rain water harvesting, waste water management, use of solar geysers and energy efficient lamps.

To have an eco-friendly environment, Nanocity has plans to build a bus transit system that would connect the entire city.

Bhatia is confident that the Nanocity would create more jobs. For every high-tech employment position introduced, three low wage or informal sector jobs would be created, he said.