The Hindu : Tamil Nadu / Chennai News : Maran cautions realtors against hiking land prices

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Friday, Nov 03, 2006
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Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu - Chennai

Maran cautions realtors against hiking land prices

Special Correspondent

"If trend continues IT firms will take their operations elsewhere"

CHENNAI: Union Minister for Communications and Information Technology Dayanidhi Maran has cautioned real estate agents and developers against hiking land prices to unreasonable levels in areas where IT companies were located.

He said that if the land prices skyrocketed going by current trends, the firms would be forced to look elsewhere.

If prices kept rising, this one factor would negate all the other positives -- and make cities here unattractive to companies and corporations. They would take their plants elsewhere.

Pointing to one example, he said that after an announcement that an IT park would be located in Coimbatore, prices went through the roof there. He said that the real estate developers and agents should ponder whether they should end up killing the goose that laid the golden egg. He hoped that the real estate agents would see reason and fix their profits at reasonable levels.

Mr. Maran said that the new IT policy would have a provision to leave a fifth of the land in an area being developed for housing. This is expected to reduce congestion and cut travel times of professionals and others from their homes to their offices.

He was talking to presspersons after a meeting with Stanley Litow, president IBM Foundation and Shanker Annaswamy, Managing Director, IBM India at his residence here.

Bangalore experience

Mr. Maran said that the hazards of concentrating on State capitals alone was evident from the infrastructure inadequacies in Bangalore.

"We should learn from the Bangalore experience. Infrastructure cannot come up overnight," he said.

Though it was Bangalore that put India on the world IT stage, the problems in the city were manifold now and serious efforts were being made to address the infrastructure problem in that city.

Having learnt from Bangalore, many other States, especially Tamil Nadu, sought to establish IT parks in Tier-2 towns. In Tamil Nadu, Coimbatore, Tiruchi and Madurai were being developed in an integrated manner.

Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi would lay the foundation stone for an IT park in Coimbatore next month, he said. Apart from this, Local Administration Minister M.K. Stalin was looking into infrastructure requirements of each of the towns and also considering the needs of Chennai. A newly elected Corporation council was in place in each of the cities and development measures were planned. The IT expressway would be inaugurated next May, he said.

Besides the provision of infrastructure in the cities, the Centre tried to ensure quicker clearances for cargo arriving at the port and airports.

"We have been able to clear goods in a single day in Chennai and we are sure we can do this elsewhere," he said.

The Software Technology Parks of India had a "proven track record" and had done excellent work for many years. This has encouraged many small firms to set shop here and considering its contribution, the STPI scheme would continue, he added.

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