Monday, July 07, 2014: The IT (Information and Technology) department of Odisha has requested the Union ministry of Communications and IT for the final approval of development of IT investment region (ITIR) in Bhubaneswar.
The proposed ITIR is to be developed in an area of about 41.32 sq km (10,210 acres) between Bhubaneswar and Khurda. Out of this, the processing area of 4,300 acres will have the IT/ITes (enabled services), electronics hardware manufacturing (EHM) and research and development (R & D) centers.
The state government has already worked on and submitted a detailed project report (DPR) to the Central government on 13 April, 2010 for setting up of the ITIR. According to a Business Standard report, Pranab Prakash Das, state IT minister wrote to Ravi Shankar Prasad, Union minister of Communications and IT & Law and Justice, “The DPR of the state government was cleared in the meeting of a high power committee under the chairmanship of Cabinet Secretary, Government of India, on July 6, 2012, where the chief secretary, Odisha made the presentation. All necessary clarification regarding power transmission infrastructure in this ITIR region, to be borne by the state government, has already been sent to Deity dated 27 January, 2014. But the approval from the Ministry of Communication and Information Technology, Government of India, has not yet been received”
“I would therefore urge your kind intervention for early approval of this ITIR of the state government by Deity (GoI),” Das further added.
The state government has also told that it will also invest Rs 3511.2 million in the power transmission infrastructure for ITIR in the state. Das will reportedly meet the Union minister Ravi Shankar Prasad in New Delhi today. The meeting will be to brief the Central government about the issue. The total project cost of ITIR is estimated to be Rs 37,000 million, out of which Rs 17,500 are expected from the centre towards setting up of external linkages. The proposed ITIR project is likely to generate 230, 000 job opportunities in IT/ITes and electronic system design and manufacturing (ESDM) sectors.
