Coimbatore Tidel Park to be ready by April end

As the outlook has brightened for the Indian software services sector in the new year, Coimbatore, the largest Tier-II city in Tamil Nadu is gearing up to join the IT revolution.

The much-awaited Tidel Park in the IT & ITES special economic zone (SEZ) in the city is expected to be up and running by April-end this year. Nearly 80 per cent of the construction work is over now, said a top official in the company.

The Park is jointly developed by the Tamil Nadu Industrial Development Corporation (Tidco), Electronics Corporation of Tamil Nadu (Elcot), Software Technology Parks of India (Stpi) and Tidel Park, Chennai.

With the state government actively promoting IT and ITES in Tier-II cities, Elcot has also embarked on developing SEZs in cities such as Madurai, Trichy, Tirunelveli, Salem and Hosur.

"Apart from developing common infrastructure facilities in the SEZs, we are building 50,000 sq ft buildings each in Madurai, Trichy and Tirunelveli to house IT companies," said an Elcot official.

He added Elcot would soon call for tender to start construction works at Salem and Hosur. Conceived in August 2006, the foundation stone for the Tidel Park Coimbatore was laid in February 2007, but due to global recession, the civil works contract was awarded as late as September 2008. "The costs escalated and we had to call for tenders twice," an official said.

Coimbatore has already attracted big IT companies including Cognizant, which has created a huge infrastructure inside a private SEZ. IT-enabled services companies such as Perot System, KGiSL and CBay Systems are also present in the city.

Built at a cost of Rs 380 crore, Tidel Park Coimbatore has three basement floors for parking, ground floor for commercial and IT & ITES purpose and four upper floors specifically for IT & ITES companies.

The SEZ is located behind Coimbatore Medical College on the NH 47 and is 3 kms from the airport. With about 9 lakh sq ft of space for IT and ITES companies, the Tidel Park is expected to provide employment to 12,000 professionals in one shift.

Apart from Tidel, Wipro, TCS and HCL too have bought 9.5 acres each inside the 56-acre IT-SEZ . While Wipro stopped its construction works after completing nearly 80 per cent of one block early last year, the other two companies are yet to start work.

But now with the Tidel Park nearing completion, TCS and HCL have requested for a floor each (2 lakh sq ft) to house their offices before building their own space.

A top Tidel official told that about 15 companies including government-owned Centre for Development of Advanced Computing and city-based Point Perfect Solutions have booked space inside the Tidel Park.

Many smaller companies including US-based Exterro have evinced interest. "The bookings are made on first come-first service and we lease out on short term (3 years) and long term (15 years) basis," he added.

Apart from housing IT and ITES companies, Tidel Park will have commercial shops catering to the needs of the employees. "Right from cafeteria to saloon to banks, nearly 1 lakh sq ft area in the ground floor will have all such facilities," an official said, adding Archies had already booked space under bookstore facility.