Sunday, February 6, 2011

Sidcul's SEZ gets de-notified

With proposals of special economic zones (SEZs) cutting no ice in the hill state, the State Infrastructure and Industrial Development Corporation of Uttarakhand Limited (Sidcul) has got its proposal for SEZ at Sahastradhara IT Park de-notified.

A formal letter to this effect has already been received from the board of approval, top government officials said.

According to the officials, since the export scenario has still not improved considerably, the corporation was in favour of establishing a new IT-BPO hub in Dehradun through the Software Technology Park of India (STPI) route claiming the scope of profitability is much better and also the companies have the option of selling products in the domestic market.

Accordingly, Sidcul had sent its proposal to the board of approval for de-notification at the Sahastradhara IT-SEZ project.

Sidcul has in its kitty nearly 37 acres of land near its Sahastradhara IT Park, which is still in the process of development here. In this 37 acres area, Sidcul initially wanted to develop an SEZ. After the downturn in 2008, Sidcul found it difficult to go ahead with the SEZ plan.

After the de-notification move, Sidcul now wants to develop the 36 acres of land meant for SEZ with the help of the Software Technology Park of India (STPI) as an IT-BPO hub.

With this, Sidcul now expects leading IT and BPO companies to Gen Pact, a BPO company has evinced interest in starting its operation from IT park Sahastradhara where some other BPO companies are already making inquiries regarding land availability in the IT park.

“We have received proposals from companies like Gen Pact. We hope we will be able to develop our Sahastradhara area into an IT-BPO hub soon,” the official added.

SEZ proposals in Uttarakhand have failed to take off during the past few years, especially after the 2008 financial crisis with some private players like Parsvnath also backing out.

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