With almost all the proposed IT projects in the city being non-starters, the emergence of Bhubaneswar as one of the most sought after IT destinations among the Tier-II cities in the country is under a cloud.
The surge of investment proposals in the IT sector which had raised expectations of an IT boom in the city now appear to be a mirage with these upcoming projects making little or no progress at the ground level.
On the face of it, the city is poised to drive the next phase of IT growth in the country with the presence of the four IT bigwigs- Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), Infosys, Wipro and Mahindra Satyam (formerly Satyam Computers) which had also announced plans to expand their operations further.
Add to this, there are a rush of investment proposals from the other prominent IT investors including MindTree Consulting, Genpact, DLF, Raheja Corporation, Zensar Technologies, ICICI Bank and the Kolkata-based Apeejay Surrendra Group.
However, the lack of resolve by the developers as well as the state IT department in expediting these projects seems to have pushed them into the back burner. The lull started with the global economic meltdown which prompted the IT players to adopt go slow tactics but even after the signs of recovery, they are still on the back foot.
While most of the IT investors are noncommittal on commencement of construction work for their projects, a few players have passed the buck on the state government for its lukewarm approach in developing the infrastructure needed for the projects.
“The state government had assured to allot us 100 acres of land at the Infocity-II area at Janla on the outskirts of the city but we are yet to be alloted land for our expansion as the Infocity-II project is facing delay”, said a senior official of Infosys Technologies.
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Consider this- The construction work on the approach road to the Infocity-II project was scheduled to begin in January this year but even ten months down the line, there are no signs of the construction work.
To make matters worse, even the state IT department has turned indifferent to these IT projects and has instead shifted its focus to the e-governance projects.
Given the current scenario when none of the IT players are giving a firm commitment on the time-line of their projects, we are focusing on the faster implementation of the different e-governance projects in the state, admitted a top official of the state IT department.
Gong by the scale of IT investments in the city, DLF leads the pack with Rs 1000 crore which it had committed for setting up the DLF Infopark project in the city. Following de-notification of its SEZ in the city, the real estate major had announced to develop the project under the STPI (Software Technology Parks of India) scheme.
Presently, mum is the word for DLF whose Infopark project was launched with much fanfare in February this year ahead of the Assembly and Lok Sabha polls in the state.
The same shadow of uncertainty looms over the other proposed IT projects with the IT players adopting a wait and watch approach.