Reinstate ITIR In Hyderabad: KTR Writes To Ravi Shankar Prasad

8 Jan, 2021 10:35 IST|Sakshi Post

Minister KTR wrote a letter to Union IT Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad requesting to reinstate ITIR in Hyderabad.

In the letter, Minister KTR said that the then Union government in 2008 had designed a new project called Information Technology Investment Region (ITIR) project in order to promote greater IT investments in the country. The project was initially sanctioned in 2010 for the two cities of Hyderabad and Bangalore, and later on a few other cities were added. As per the requirement of the project guidelines, 49,000 acres of land in 3 clusters (both brownfield and greenfield) were identified in Hyderabad where new IT companies and IT space developers could be encouraged to set up their development centres.

The scheme had a provision for the Government of India to pitch in with gap funding for the required trunk infrastructure from its existing schemes. Accordingly, a shelf of 5 projects with a total outlay of Rs 3275 crores were identified for the Hyderabad ITIR. The Government of India accorded its approval to the proposals submitted, and also agreed to support the infrastructure proposals in two phases, namely 2 projects in phase I with an outlay of Rs 165 crores and the remaining 3 projects in phase II with an outlay of Rs 3110 crores. The entire project was also given a definite timeline, with the expected date of completion of phase 1 projects by 2018 and expected date of completion of the remaining projects within 20 years thereafter.

Regarding the first two projects approved in phase 1, the state government and Government of India were engaged in correspondence with the Ministries of Railways and Road transport for sanctioning additional budgets to take up these two projects. However, none of the GoI Ministries  responded favourably to these proposals and the 2 projects remained non-starters.

“On behalf of the Government of Telangana, the Hon’ble Chief Minister Sri K Chandrashekar Rao and I had written several letters and submitted memorandums about ITIR project to the Union Government during the past six years. However, there was no response whatsoever from the Union Government on this important initiative,” said Minister KTR.

Telangana, which became a new state in 2014, has on its own, made ample efforts to propel further growth in the IT sector.

Minister KTR highlighted that the Telangana Government was able to double the value of IT exports from Hyderabad from Rs 57,258 crores in 2013-14 to Rs 1,28,807 crores in 2019-20.

“This leads to a cumulative growth of 110% which is much higher than the national average. In the same period, our IT sector employment also grew from 3,25,000 to 5,82,126,” he added.

In the letter, the Minister mentioned that the marquee companies of the world have chosen Hyderabad to set up their largest operations outside their own headquarters. The list includes illustrious companies like Amazon, Microsoft, Google, Apple, Facebook, Salesforce, Uber, Qualcomm, and ServiceNow.

The state government has also been taking a lead role in promoting emerging technologies like AI, Data Analytics, IOT, cyber security, Digital entertainment technologies (Animation, Gaming, VFX), Blockchain, Drones, et cetera. The proactive role of the state government in encouraging product development, R & D, and skill development in these areas of emerging technologies has also encouraged many global and domestic IT companies to bring their technology development centres to Hyderabad. Through meticulous planning and robust implementation, the state has also become the leader in promoting technology innovation through its specialised and dedicated institutions like T-Hub, T-Works, WE–Hub and TASK.

“Despite the global predicament due to the ongoing pandemic, the technology industry in Hyderabad has faced minimum disruption in conducting its activities,” said KTR.

Minister KTR also stated that the government has facilitated the required assistance to all the companies and their employees towards a smooth and quick transition to Work From Home and nevertheless, the IT industry too has been impacted due to the global economic slowdown, and the post-Covid economic recovery may easily take some years to materialise.

“Projects such as ITIR also provide a huge boost to the honorable Prime Minister Sri Narendra Modi Ji’s initiatives such as Make in India and also Atmanirbhar Bharat. The youth of Telangana will benefit immensely from the employment opportunities that will be created due to ITIR,” said Minister KTR.

Minister KTR concluded the letter expressing hope that the Government of India will rise to the occasion and respond to the Telangana Government’s sincere request in the right earnest.

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