The Tamil Nadu government plans to invite international bids by early next month for its proposed financial city near Chennai. The proposed city would attract investments worth Rs 10,000 crore, according to a senior state government official.
There are two more financial cities coming up in the country — one in Gujarat, Gujarat International Finance Tech City (GIFT), spread over 500 acres, and another near Pune.
The state government has also submitted a proposal to the Union government for setting up an information technology (IT) investment region, which would attract investments worth Rs 21,600 crore, near Chennai.
P W C Davidar, IT secretary for Tamil Nadu, said PricewaterhouseCoopers would submit a study paper on the proposed financial city by the end of this month and Tamil Nadu Industrial Development Corporation would call for the bids by early next month. He was speaking to reporters on the sidelines of an event, organised by the Confederation of Indian Industry.
The proposed financial city would come at Sholinganallur – Perumbakkam village, near Chennai, and focus on core financial activities like banking, insurance, re-insurance, risk management, actuarial services, wealth management services, etc.
The city may house IT product and solution vendor teams to specifically cater to the needs of these financial institutions and also include IT infrastructure management and customer servicing. It would also have training centres, staff training colleges and relevant educational institutions.
More From This Section
Rajeev Ranjan, principal secretary – industries, Tamil Nadu, said initially, the state government had planned to set up the city in 170 acres, but now it would start with 25 acres. The city would attract investments worth Rs 10,000 crore, he said.
The proposed IT investment region would spread over 50 square kilometres and around Rs 21,600 crore would be invested for creating infrastructure like road and rail connectivity, said Ranjan.
The proposed zone would boost industrial activities in the state, he said. In 2008-09, software exports from the state stood at Rs 36,680 crore. For 2009-10, it is expected to cross Rs 40,000 crore, according to state IT minister Poongodhai. The state ranks second in software exports.
The information and communication technologies (ITC) sector employs around 800,000 people and provides indirect employment to a further 2.2 million in the state.