BHUBANESWAR: The State Government has once again requested the Centre to approve an information technology investment region (ITIR) in Odisha to boost investment in IT sector. Though the high powered committee headed by the Union Cabinet Secretary had approved the project on 10,000 acres on the outskirts of the Capital city, the Ministry of Electronics and IT is yet to give formal approval. Besides, a proposal from the State Government for setting up electronics system design and manufacturing (ESDM) incubation centre is also pending with the Centre. A detailed project report for the ESDM centre which will cost Rs 23 crore was also submitted by the State Government to the Centre.
The ITIR with an estimated cost of Rs 3,700 crore will be set up on a 50:50 cost sharing basis between the Centre and State. There will be a 4300 acres of processing zone in ITIR to house information technology (IT), Information Technology Enabled Services (ITES), Electronics Hardware Manufacturing (EHM) and Research and Development Centre.
Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik had demanded that the Centre should approve the ITIR project as early as possible. In a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, he sought early nod from the Centre for implementation of ITIR project in the State which would contribute significantly to the new programmes launched by Modi, ‘Make in India’ and the ‘Digital India’.
The State Government had submitted the detailed project report (DPR) to the Centre on April 13, 2010 for setting up of an ITIR in Bhubaneswar.Though the DPR was cleared by a committee under the Cabinet Secretary and the State Government has given the clarifications about the project to the Union Department of Electronics and Information Technology, the matter is still pending with the Centre.