Hardware Park to come up in Bangalore soon

Hardware Park to come up in Bangalore soon
The Economic Times


THE HARDWARE story in Karnataka may not be much to write about, unlike the software sector, since there has not been a concerted effort to attract units to this segment. However, things might change for the better as plans are to get the proposed hardware park at Devanahalli on the outskirts of Bangalore, up and going by January 2008. The proposed IT hardware park as a special economic zone (SEZ) to be spread over 1,400 acres has been bogged down by the land notification and acquisition process.

But things are looking up with the land being notified and the acquisition process beginning. Talking to ET, State IT Secretary M K Shankaralinge Gowda said, “We have to take a call now on improving hardware manufacturing in Karnataka as the enterprises need certain basic facilities and incentives.”Gowda said hardware sector requires a cluster to set up its facilities and this would also mean that the park will be coming up near the ongoing international airport project.
The opening of the park would almost be in conjunction with the international airport.

The hardware exports under the STPI registered unit was Rs 1768 crore for the 2004-05 fiscal and is expected to touch Rs 2200 crore during the current fiscal. There are about 50 units in Karnataka.

Karnataka has been losing ground in hardware manufacturing to neighbouring states. The recent opening of Nokia’s manufacturing plant in Chennai and SemIndia’s plans of setting up its chip manufacturing plant in Andhra Pradesh did not exactly the boost the image of the state in hardware manufacturing.Meanwhile, the IT department has also invited Dell Computers to set up its manufacturing plant in Bangalore.

Gowda said it has already communicated to the world’s largest PC manufacturer inviting them to set up the plant in Karnataka, but added that there has been no response from them till now.Dell has already announced plans of setting up a manufacturing plant in India but still has not decided on the location. Chennai is said to be strong suitor.