Poor infrastructure may hit Chennai's IT plans

While the poor conditions of the roads in Bangalore hog the limelight and hit the headlines, its counterpart Chennai is faring no better.

The work on the six-lane express-way along the Information Technology Corridor (old Mahabalipuram road), which was expected to be completed by the end of 2004, has not yet taken off.

In addition to the recent rains, the works carried out by the public work departments in the IT Corridor has made traffic movement along the road difficult.

Tamil Nadu government has proposed to constitute a special purpose vehicle (SPV) called IT Expressway Limited to undertake the implementation of a six-lane express-way project to international standards. Tamil Nadu Road Development Corporation (TNRDC) will take up the project on a public-private partnership model with an investment of around Rs 110 crore which was upgraded from Rs 70 crore.

Real estate sources say that the state government had quickened the approval time for IT commercial space by a month so as to compete with Bangalore and Hyderabad in attracting IT and ITES companies.

"By completing the six-lane express-way project on time, the state government could have taken advantage of the poor infrastructure in Bangalore," real estate sources added. Government officials were not available for comments.

Sources from the government, however, said that the reason for the delay in the project was due to some additions made to the project and problems like land acquisitions. The project is expected to be started by January 2005.

Another major project in the area is Mass Rapid Transit System (MRTS) from Chennai beach to Tamabaram. This project is the completion of the phase II which is expected to be operational shortly. MRTS phase II has been taken up to Velachery at a cost of Rs 689.01 crore for a total length of 11.165 km (23.318 km on surface and 7.848 km are elevated structures).

Ramesh Nair, associate director of Jones Lang La Salle, said, "About 1.5 million commercial space is under construction along the IT Corridor which is expected to get absorbed by IT and ITES by the second quarter of 2005."

The IT Corridor is about 20 kilometres long extending from Tidel Park to Siruseri IT Park and boosts of all big names like Wipro, Infosys, Tata Consultancy Services(TCS), Cognizant Technology Service and Polaris. The 980-acre Siruseri Software Park is promoted by the State Industries Promotion Corporation of Tamil Nadu. About 677 acres of land are yet to be allocated. The cost of per acre is Rs 16 lakh.

Lim Kim Tah Holdings, a residential township project, is estimated to cost around Rs 500 crore which is to be developed in three phases in 100 acres and will eventually house about 6,000 residential units.

Some popular IT companies have taken space in the Siruseri IT Park. While Xansas is planning to house its campus in 27 acres of land, TCS has taken 70 acres of land. The recent entrant, Syntel, has taken 50 acres of land.