Daijiworld Media Network - Mangaluru (SP)

Mangaluru, Jan 29: Although it has been ten years since the information technology special economic zone (IT SEZ) was formed at Pajeeru near Mudipu, no IT company has shown interest to establish its units here. As such, Karnataka Industrial Area Development Board is actively considering a move to convert it into women entrepreneurs park. A proposal for the same has been prepared.

The state government, with the aim of encouraging women entrepreneurs, has been creating separate zones for them. It has sought earmarking of land for this purpose in Mysuru, Mangaluru, Bengaluru and Ballari.

Infosys has been allotted 354 acres of land at Mudipu for its campus. The government had created IT SEZ at Pajeeru for information technology industry in 2007 where 81 acres of land is available. The area has been provided with water, power, and road connections. Even though a Mumbai-based software company was allotted 17.8 acres of land here, it has not begun operations. Although 81 acres of land is available here, after development, only 29.42 acre land is available. This is proposed to be converted into women entrepreneurs park.

Dakshina Kannada district in-charge minster, U T Khader, feels that industries may be shying away from coming here either because of some past unsavoury incidents or because of lack of infrastructure. He said that during the pre-budget discussions, recommendation has been made to create another IT park in the district.

Head of Kanara Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Praveen Kalbavi, points out to the fact that Startup Incubation Centre is functioning well but there is no convenient place for setting up the industries for startups. He recollected that the state government had been approached in 2013 by KCCI, IT heads, former Infosys director, T V Mohandas Pai etc, seeking to declare the city as BPO hub, in which case, IBM, Cognizant, Infosys, Wipro, TCS etc would have set up their branches here.