Lakshmi Parthasarathi, who recently took charge as the new principal secretary of the state Industries department, is said to have found out that part of the land earmarked for the development of IT park falls under the GO 111, which prohibits any civil constructions in the catchment area of Himayat Sagar and Gandipet drinking water reservoirs, the lifelines of the state capital.
According to sources, chief minister Y S Rajasekhara Reddy has agreed to the idea of cancelling the bid process with regard to Vattinagulapally IT park and has invited Wipro chief Azim Premji to set up campus at the proposed site.
The government’s keenness to provide huge chunk of land to Wipro comes after the company is said to have promised to create over 30,000 jobs on its new campus. It currently has over 3,000 professionals on the existing campus in Hyderabad. The government may consider giving the entire land to Wipro and ask it to develop a greenbelt in the area which falls under the catchment of the city’s reservoirs.
The land for the construction of the campus is expected to be allotted to the company at market price, which matches the upset price of Rs 40 lakh per acre as fixed by the Andhra Pradesh Industrial Infrastructure Corporation (APIIC), officials said. This weekend, top brass of Wipro is expected to fly down to Hyderabad and visit the location before accepting the offer.
The state government’s decision to cancel the Vattinagulapally bid appears to be prompted by other reasons too including the price variation quoted by the top two bidders – Lanco Infratech Limited and the second highest bidder Nagarjuna Construction Limited (NCL). While Lanco quoted Rs 2.1 crore per acre, NCL quoted Rs 81 lakh on the upset price of Rs 40 lakh fixed by APIIC for the development of the IT park under private sector.
Similar proposals from Infosys and TCS for 100 acres of land each for the development of new campuses too are under consideration, IT officials said.
