Nagesh Prabhu

and S. Rajendran

BANGALORE: The State Government is planning to set up yet another electronics city on a 1,000-acre plot on the outskirts of Bangalore with the existing Electronics City on Hosur Road reaching a saturation point.

Sources told The Hindu that it is, however, highly unlikely that the second electronics city would be located in and around the Electronics City owing to paucity of land. The Karnataka Housing Board has acquired a huge extent of land in the vicinity of the Electronics City to develop a massive housing layout (Suryanagar Layout) and is also planning to acquire additional land for the second phase of the same layout.

A senior official of the Industries Department said the State Government would scout for land south of Bangalore or along the south-east corridor since it would help the information technology companies to be in the proximity of the new international airport coming up at Devanahalli on the National Highway-7. Should the second electronics city come up on this stretch, a plan would be proposed to link the Hosur Road with the National Highway-7 by a high-speed corridor.

Minister for Industries Katta Subramanya Naidu said the IT companies had been demanding one more electronic city in Bangalore to set up their units. As there was no space in the existing Electronics City, the Government was planning to acquire 1,000 acres exclusively for another electronic city on the outskirts of the State capital, he said. The IT major, Infosys has made a fervent plea to the Industries Minister to set up another electronics city in the vicinity of Bangalore. Infosys has its headquarters at the Electronics City.

Mr. Naidu said the city had become a major IT hub and its growth has been unprecedented over the last few years. Many international companies set up firms and even headquarters here. With land prices skyrocketing, it was difficult for small software firms to purchase lands. Further, there was also the paucity of land in the city. The Government would acquire land and provide the required infrastructure at the proposed electronics city, he said. The Minister was speaking on the sidelines of a programme "Suvarna Karnataka Udyoga Shikshana Yojane," organised by the Department of Industries and Commerce at the Government Maharani's Arts, Commerce and Science College here.

The Karnataka Electronics Development Corporation Limited (KEONICS), an entity of the State Government established in 1976, had set up Electronics City in the early 1980s during the Ramakrishna Hegde Government. The land for the city was acquired by the Karnataka Industrial Areas Development Board and for nearly a decade there was hardly any demand for land in the Electronics City. Thanks to the boom in the IT sector, the real estate prices in the region have now spiralled.

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