Chief minister Jai Ram Thakur laid the foundation stone of Software Technology Park of India (STPI) at Mehli near Shimla along with Union minister of electronics and information technology Ravi Shankar Prasad on Monday, reported Times of India.
Thakur said the park would encourage new information technology and provide IT-enabled services in the state. The startups at the park will provide direct employment to information technology professionals, he said. Proposed to accommodate 15 to 20 startups, the park will cost an estimated Rs 10 crore.
Agriculture and information technology minister Dr Ram Lal Markanda said to TOI it was due to the efforts of Prasad that the foundation stone of the park, the second in the state, was laid. He requested the Union minister to approve another park for the state in Kangra district.
Thakur said that park would be developed with incubation facility with an approximate built up area of 14,000 sq ft. “This would accommodate about 15 to 20 startups with direct employment to 300 to 400 IT professionals and four times the indirect employment in over five years,” he said to the English Daily.
The chief minister said another such park is proposed to be set up near the Gaggal airport in Kangra district, for which land has been identified. He said the state government had set up 10 targets for the first 100 days. While nine targets had already been achieved, the tenth was achieved with the laying of foundation stone of this centre, he said.
Prasad said the STPI’s additional incubation facility in Shimla would act as a resource centre for IT, ITES and electronics system design and manufacturing units.
