This story is from August 28, 2014

No takers for IT Park bid, again

The Maharashtra Industrial Development Corporation (MIDC) has again failed to get any bids for the Information Technology (IT) Park despite reduction in bidding rate and decided to extend the deadline by 10 days.
No takers for IT Park bid, again
NASHIK: The Maharashtra Industrial Development Corporation (MIDC) has again failed to get any bids for the Information Technology (IT) Park despite reduction in bidding rate and decided to extend the deadline by 10 days.
The IT Park has been lying idle for over a decade. The MIDC recently floated the tender for re-auctioning the IT Park building and offered reduced rates as compared with last year.
The state industrial corporation reduced the minimum bid rates by 9% but not a single company submitted a bid till the last date for the auction on August 25.
The state government had set up state-of-the-art IT Parks in select cities with an aim to boost the growth of the technology industry. The IT Park building built by MIDC at a cost of Rs 2.23 crore was inaugurated in 2002. It has been lying idle since then due to poor response from industries.
Speaking to TOI, a senior MIDC official said, "We had called for bids for re-auction of the IT Park building, but not a single company submitted the bid by August 25. Hence, we have extended the deadline to September 4. We hope we will receive good response from the companies this time."
Officials said that in March last year, the IT Park was put up for auction but did not evoke any response. The minimum bid rate at that time was Rs 24,530 per sq m. There was demand from the industry to reduce the rates. Accordingly, the bid rates were revised to Rs 22,300 per sq m.
The IT Park building located in Ambad industrial estate has been developed on 7.52 hectares of land. It has as many as 28 open plots of different dimensions, ranging from 500 sq m to 5,500 sq m. The three-storeyed IT Park building, which includes 15 galas, was built on 0.64 hectares of land, with a total construction area of 3,075 sq m. The carpet area of shops in IT Park building is in the range of 183 sq m to 278 sq m.

In 2007, a Mumbai-based construction company had entered into an agreement with MIDC to buy the building, but it later cited lack of potential and cancelled the deal. Thereafter, two more Mumbai-based IT companies had shown interest in buying the park and submitted bids in 2012, but failed to work out.
Nishikant Ahire, chairman of Confederation of Indian Industry (Nashik Zonal Council), said, "Although the MIDC has reduced the cost, it is still unrealistic. In fact, the original concept of the MIDC is to facilitate growth of the industry, but it is not happening. In Chennai, the land was provided to IT industries at a nominal rate of Re one per sq ft. Today, large number of IT industries have come up there. How the industries would set up their business if they have to invest crores of rupees in land only?"
He suggested that the Maharashtra government and the MIDC should rethink the bid and offer it at a reasonable rate of around Rs 1,000 per sq m.
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