Coimbatore has only been able to attract a handful of software and business process outsourcing companies in the last three years in spite of being promoted as the second hub for these sectors in Tamil Nadu after Chennai.
According to real estate consultants and builders, Coimbatore is yet to become an IT and ITES hub to leverage its strength such as large talent pool, strategic location, good infrastructure and a domestic airport. The city is a manufacturing hub for textile machinery, foundries, pumpsets and also emerged as healthcare centre.
This can be evident with the Tamil Nadu government recent request to the central government for a Special Economic Zone status for Coimbatore which will give the required thrust for IT and ITES companies to set up their facilities.
In his special address at the sixth edition of CoimbatoreIT.com conference on 'Leveraging the IT advantage in moving up the Value Chain', C Chandramouli, secretary- department of information technology, government of Tamil Nadu, said "The state government has submitted a proposal to the central government to the central government to declare Coimbatore as a SEZ".
Real estate players point out that for over two years now it has been said that software major Wipro was planning to set up its presence in Coimbatore but there has been no progress on that front that would have given an impetus to other companies.
There was a delay in Electronics Corporation of Tamil Nadu (ELCOT) in procuring 30 acre in Coimbatore Medical College to promote a software park proposed almost a year ago.
So far, the three IT Parks that have come up in Coimbatore have been in promoted by engineering colleges in their campus. PSG College of Technology established the first science and technology park way back in 1998.
The objective of the park was to promote technology-based enterprise in areas if software, electronic products, hi-tech mechanical products and biotechnology.
Chandramouli had mentioned that the land identified for the project on Coimbatore Medical College campus had been transferred to the ELCOT. A public-private partnership model would soon be in place to implement the project, he added.
Four months ago, Cognizant Technologies has taken up 40,000 sq ft space of the 100,000 sq ft software park promoted by Kumaraguru College of Technology.
Chandrasekaran, managing director, Cognizant Technologies, says that choice of Coimbatore has been to leverage the rich talent pool of technical professionals in the city.
Currently, Cognizant has over 200 professionals in the Coimbatore center we expect to ramp up the team to 400 in the first year of our operations.
Published reports illustrate that the tier II city has large human resources with 19 engineering colleges, 70 arts and science institutions and 14 polytechnics producing 20,000 graduates every year.
Engineering colleges alone produce close to 6,000 engineering every year. It is strategically located between Tamil Nadu and Kerala and can be connected by road, rail and air.
However, there seems to be a silver lining with ETL Infrastructure Services recently proposing to construct an IT park in a 14 acre property in Avinashi Road at an investment of Rs 140 crore (Rs 1.40 billion). About 1.6 million sq ft built-up-space is expected to be constructed with the first phase having 800,000 sq ft and the remaining is proposed to be constructed.
