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Deal inked for knowledge city in Haryana

Special Correspondent

Will be set up in Panchkula district of Haryana at a cost of Rs.1,850 crores

CHANDIGARH: The Haryana State Industrial and Infrastructure Development Corporation (HSIIDC) and Nano Works Developers have signed a joint venture agreement to set up a knowledge city in Panchkula district at an estimated cost of Rs.1,850 crores.

The agreement was signed by the Managing Director of HSIIDC, Rajeev Arora, and the Chairman and Managing Director of Nano Works Developers, Sabeer Bhatia of Hotmail fame, in the presence of Haryana Financial Commissioner and Principal Secretary (Industries and Information Technology) P.K. Chaudhary.

An official spokesman said that the project had been cleared by the Haryana Investment Promotion Board headed by Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda.

Called "Nanocity.IN", the project will provide an environment and an eco-system that fosters intellectual creativity in the technologies of the future like Nano Technology, Bio Sciences, Software Product Development, Next generation Internet products, materials research and energy.

A Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) will be formed to implement the project in two phases. The project will be funded by way of debt equity ratio of 1:1. A site measuring about 11,000 acres has been identified in Panchkula district by a Joint Working Group constituted by the State Government. While an area of about 5,000 acres of land will be covered under the first phase of the project, the remaining 6,000 acres will be utilised in the second phase. The total cost of the project includes the cost of land, development of infrastructure, maintenance and administrative expenses.

The spokesman said that 90 per cent of the share in the proposed SPV would be held by Nano Works Developers and others and the remaining 10 per cent by the HSIIDC, which would be in the form of sweat equity for the value added services to be provided by the Corporation to the SPV in the implementation of the project.

Mr. Bhatia, the legendary founder of Hotmail that he subsequently sold to the world's richest man, Bill Gates for upward of 400 million dollars, said that India had done a great job of creating a vibrant and growing software industry and the time was ripe for it to move into the next phase for the development of products and technologies for the world market.

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