India's first special economic zone (SEZ) exclusively for IT and ITeS firms will be ready by November at Kokapet.
Eleven firms have shown interest to set up their offices in the SEZ, being developed by the Hyderabad Urban Development Authority (Huda), on 125 acres. Approximate investment, including land cost for the SEZ, will be to the tune of Rs 805 crore.
Companies like Google, Patni, Sonata, Intelligroup, Conexant, C-Bay, Cognizant, Qualcomm, DQ Entertainment, Infinite and Tech Mahindra have paid Rs 25 lakh per acre for land and another Rs 25 lakh to Huda towards the development charges.
While Patni has been allotted 29 acres, Google got 24.21 acres. Cognizant and Tech Mahindra got about 10 acres each. Sonata, Qualcomm, C Bay has been allotted eight acres each. Intelligroup, Conexant, Infinite got about fives acres and DQ was given 3.47 acres.
The land would be leased out to the companies for a period of 20 years and lease agreements are expected to be executed in a couple of weeks.
Except one firm all software companies have paid land cost and development charges to Huda. Even the lone firm is expected to pay up in a week, Huda sources said.
The Huda has finalised tenders for laying roads and providing other infrastructure. The SEZ would be ready in another six months. .
This SEZ was proposed to be set up at Poppalguda in Survey No. 452 and 454 and the IT department even issued a GO on June 19, 2006 for setting up the special zone. As some environmentalists raised objections over the project as the areas in a heritage and conservation zone, the SEZ was moved to Kokapet. The objection was some rocks are located in the area which were part of a heritage precincts.
Later, the IT department shifted the SEZ to Kokapet by allotting 125 acres in Survey No 239 based on recommendation of Huda given in November, 2006. It took six months to invite firms and complete the procedures.