Panchkula emerging top destination for IT firms

Vijay C Roy

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, November 15

After Chandigarh and Mohali, Panchkula is emerging as a preferred destination for IT companies. In the past six months, companies such as Click Labs (P) Ltd, Frontizo Business Services, a joint venture between Patni Group and Amazon Asia Pacific, and Esri India have commenced their commercial operations. The three companies put together would employ over 2,000 IT/ITeS professionals by the end of this year.

Established in 2008, Panchkula IT Park is spread over 79 acres and has 28 plots for the IT companies besides land earmarked for commercial establishments, institutions and shops.

Out of the total plots earmarked for IT companies, nine are still vacant. With entrepreneurs preferring Chandigarh and Mohali because of better connectivity, the IT Park at Panchkula had been suffering. “Out of total allotted sites, 10 companies have already started operations while the rest are at different stages of completion,” sources said.

The major companies which are having operations in the IT Park include Altruist Technologies, Stylum Industries and erstwhile Idea Cellular besides over two dozen firms in the MSME space which have taken space on lease.

Around May this year, Chandigarh-based technology solution provider Click Labs shifted to Panchkula IT Park. The company is employing around 800 people.

Similarly, Frontizo Business Services recently set up their new contact centre in Panchkula. The new centre will see Frontizo Business Services hiring up to 1,000 people in different roles by the end of FY 2019-20.

Frontizo will service Amazon’s customers in Hindi from the Panchkula site thus enabling Amazon to service Hindi-speaking customers who constitute a sizeable number of their customer base in India.

After Frontizo, Esri India — the Indian arm of California-based Esri and leading Geographic Information System (GIS) Software and Solutions provider — has announced the inauguration of its latest Global Delivery Centre for GIS Data Management in Panchkula. It will provide GIS Data Management Services to global customers in sectors such as power, telecom and to government. The centre will employ data scientists, domain experts, data quality specialists and GIS analysts who will deliver GIS Data Management Services.

Agendra Kumar, president, Esri India, said, “When we started looking for location for our next facility, we found the IT Park in Panchkula was most suitable in terms of infrastructure availability. This centre will also provide a good opportunity for local talent to work on global GIS projects.”

This facility will hire around 150 employees and the company plans to double this number in the next 2-3 years. The launch of this centre will further encourage other GIS organisations to set up offices in this region given Esri’s global leadership position.