CM revives hopes for IT park at Waknaghat

Ambika Sharma

Tribune News Service

Solan, February 9

Hopeful of roping in investors for the much-delayed information technology (IT) park at Waknaghat, Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur has included it in his budgetary announcement for the 2019-2020 financial year.

The project, which was initially conceived as an integrated information technology park-cum-township in 2007, failed to take off with investors evincing no interest in the area. The state government now hopes to refurbish the project and rope in fresh investment, especially since thousands of IT professionals pass out from state institutes every year and providing them jobs is an arduous task. The old project had been abandoned at an advanced stage after a request for proposal involving an expenditure of Rs 340 crore had been invited by the state government as there were no takers.

Spread over an area of 65 acres, half of which was supposed to be utilised for the park and the rest for setting up a township for a population of 6,000, had not enthused realtors.

The proposed IT park was spread over 12.72 lakh sq ft, including 7.50 lakh sq ft of built-up area and 5.22 lakh sq ft of built-to-suit plots, out of which 70 per cent was slated to be utilised for information technology activities.