Nagpur IT 2012 - NIT's IT Park finally takes off, with pvt player

 The city may have one more IT park in the coming days, a project that could have come up much earlier but for an abrupt change of approach by Nagpur Improvement Trust (NIT). The project will come up on 2 acres NIT land behind the existing Infotech tower in Parsodi.

NIT finally found someone willing to work on the IT park at the end of 2011, after repeatedly calling for tenders. Now, city-based Vidarbha Infotech has got the land on a 90-year lease for Rs 15 crore. The company plans to come up with a hi-tech data centre in a major part of the area and let out the rest. It will also pay an annual rent of Rs 30 lakh to NIT.

NIT had planned to build the IT Park on its own in 2006 and even laid the foundation by spending around Rs 1.4 crore. Then, in 2008, it decided to go in for public-private partnership (PP) and work was abandoned. As time passed, the plot turned into a marsh, with rain water accumulating in the pit.

The decision on PPP model was taken by Sanjay Mukherjee, who had taken over as NIT chairman, said sources. The board approved the model on October 4, 2008, and permission to invite online offers came three years later, in October 2011.

The offer date was extended thrice as there were no takers. A Rs 6 crore bid by city-based construction firm M/s Nanak Baba Sars was accepted, but the firm was disqualified on technical grounds. One of the partners in it did not have required net worth. The next bid was abysmally low at Rs 1.6 crore. Finally, in December 2012, Vidarbha Infotech's bid of Rs 15 crore was accepted and an agreement drawn out, said a source. The firm has paid 25% amount and the rest has to be paid in five yearly instalments. It will also pay Rs 30 lakh per annum as ground rent.

Jan Manch, a social organization, has questioned the delay, change of decision and Rs 1.4 crore being wasted on the construction, through a RTI query. NIT has, strangely, replied that nobody is responsible for the money going waste. NIT's current chairman Pravin Darade said he was only taking the earlier decision further and could not comment on acts of his predecessors. No one remembers who in NIT decided to build the park on its own.

A source in NIT said the PPP route was thought to be better as it would lead to the facility being built by an IT player. A private player would be able to respond faster to changing requirements of the sector. "NIT has to go strictly by the book and once plans are frozen, there is no scope for change," said a senior NIT official.

He pointed out there was no financial loss for NIT. The earlier plan was to build the basement and parking levels, and move ahead after judging demand. The first phase entailed a cost of Rs 2 crore but the project changed before its completion. Utilizing full FSI of plot would have entailed construction worth Rs 15 crore and NIT would have leased the property out at around Rs 30 crore. In the present deal, it will receive Rs 15 crore plus ground rent without spending anything, the source said.