IT park Infocity, Oberois in 5-star hotel deal

Infocity, the IT park near Gandhinagar in Gujarat, and the Oberoi group are jointly building a five-star business hotel at a cost of Rs 150 crore to cater to the needs of IT companies.

"A five-star business hotel in joint venture with the Oberoi group will come up shortly," said Anupam Saxena, director of Infocity.

In a first of its kind hotel joint venture, Infocity will not only offer space to the Oberoi group but will also invest Rs 150 crore in the project, said Saxena.

"Infocity would not be like any other IT park with towers loaded with IT companies. We will provide all kinds of facilities including a five-star business hotel, shopping malls, club house and many others," said Saxena. Infocity would be an IT park with lifestyle, he declared.

Infocity is a 116-acre development project. In which, 130 residential township units are already complete in the first phase, and in the second phase, apartments and flats will be constructed, informed Saxena.

This year, Infocity has around 40 IT companies "� including 30 BPOs and 10 software companies "� compared to only 10 IT companies till October 2004. "Now, we are tying up with at least one IT company every month," Saxena said.

In the first half of October this year, Infocity signed three US-based and two Indian IT companies. Core Tree, Search Force and CM Softwares are the three US companies

"Before Diwali, we are also going to finalise our agreement with Microsoft for its Bhasha Lab Project," Saxena said. He was quite optimistic that within a few months, all top five Indian IT companies will enter Infocity.

As more and more IT companies are stepping into the Infocity territory, employment opportunities offered by the IT park are also on the rise. "Currently with 40 companies at Infocity, there are some 1,000 vacancies, and within a few months, the figure may increase to 6,000-7,000," said Saxena.

Besides IT companies, the IT park also has more than 10 internet service providers (ISPs). "We have BSNL, VSNL, Bharti, Tata, Railtel, Blazenet, Icenet and a few more to provide bandwidth," said Saxena.

He said in future there will not be any issue of low bandwidth or traffic. "With so many ISPs, international private leased circuit would be 100 per cent up, and every company will be dealing with at least three ISPs within Infocity without compromising on quality," Saxena said.

He felt, in the entire western India, after Mumbai the next IT hub would be Infocity. "If companies are interested in towers, we have enough space for them, and we also provide floors in towers if they are interested in purchasing them," Saxena said.

While the first tower is already complete, the second tower will be ready by the end of this year, and the third and the fourth towers by June 2006.

"Companies from across the world are taking Infocity seriously. Especially after the coming of US companies and Indian IT major TCS, many BPOs and software companies worldwide are attracted towards the IT park. So, Infocity will very soon be another IT hub of the country," Saxena said.