'Navigator' at ITPB

Work on ITPB complex to be completed by September

The Hindu

Its sixth building, called `Navigator,' covers four lakh sq. ft and costs Rs. 150 crore

# A 200-room hotel will also come up in the park
# There will be a 12.5 MW dedicated power plant

Bangalore: The sixth building of the International Tech Park, Bangalore (ITPB), called `Navigator,' coming up on four lakh sq. ft, will be completed by September, according to Jonathan Yap, Chief Executive Officer, Ascendas India.

The complex coming up at a cost of Rs. 150 crore would also have a tie-up with a chain of hotels to develop a hotel with 200 rooms within the park. Mr. Yap said huge investments had gone into the 12.5 MW dedicated power plant for reliable power supply operating in synchronisation with Karnataka Power Transmission Corporation Ltd.

Ascendas, whose flagship venture in India is the International Tech Park in Bangalore, has followed it up with `Cyber Pearl' and `The V,' both located in Hyderabad, and the International Tech Park in Chennai.

On the occupancy level, he said it was cent per cent in Bangalore and Hyderabad and 99.3 per cent in Chennai. The retention in the companies over the last three years was 80 per cent. He said that with tech parks concentrated in the South, Ascendas would look at establishing business spaces up North, focussing on tier two cities as well.

The Ascendas Tech Park Fund of Rs. 1,000 crore had been fully subscribed last year and now the Ascendas Trust was looking at another Rs. 1,000 crore in the next five years, he said.

ITPL in Bangalore, a joint venture with the Karnataka Industrial Areas Development Board, houses 126 companies with a workforce of 19,300. Two million sq. ft has been developed and 8,50,000 sq. ft is under development, including a 200-room Taj Hotel, which is expected to be ready by 2007.