Poor response from realtors delays Solan IT Park bidding

Poor response from realtors delays Solan IT Park bidding
The Financial Express, January 19, 2010, Page 20

Preeti Parashar, Chandigarh

The bidding process of Himachal Pradesh’s first IT park proposed to come up near Waknaghat in Solan district has been put on hold due to poor response from developers.

Though the last date for inviting the bids had been extended from October 26, 2009 toJanuary 4 this year but not many companies came forward till the last date. A senior official of Himachal’s IT department told FE that tender committee’s meeting will be held on Tuesday to decide whether to further extend the date or defer the bidding for now.

“Since the bidding process had been deferred earlier this month till further orders things will be clear after the meeting. We hope the market to pick up soon and more developers are expected to evince interest in developing the project. The real estate developers have also asked for a few changes in the request for proposal (RFP), which will be taken into consideration in the meeting,” said the official.

He further added, “The companies want some relaxations in the development norms, milestones kept by us for the project and various land laws etc. It is expected that the RFP will be finalised after accommodating the changes during the meeting. Then it will be further forwarded to the cabinet for final approval.”

The IT park-cum-township project has been running slow ever since its inception. Earlier state’s IT department had floated the RFP in September 2009.

As per information available companies like like Mahindra World City, Jaypee Group, AGS Infrastructure, CMC Constructions evinced interest in developing the park. The successful real estate developer will be responsible for designing, developing and managing the proposed IT park cum township.

The IT park-cum-township will be developed on public-private-partnership (PPP) basis and spread over 64.7 acre in village Mauja Majhol in Solan district. The estimated investment going into the park will be around Rs 500 crore.

The developer will plan, market, develop buildings, provide and maintain amenities, and manage the project for 80 years. The infrastructural facilities will have to be developed by the company within four years from date of commencement of the project.