The State government on Thursday issued orders converting 11 industrial parks that are within the Outer Ring Road into Information Technology parks.
The industrial parks that will be converted into IT parks are the ones at Kukatpally, Gandhinagar, Balanagar, Mallapur, Moulali and Sanatnagar. The Industrial Development Areas which are nothing but industrial parks at Uppal, Nacharam, Patancheru (partly), Ramachandrapuram and Katedan will also become IT parks.
The conversion of the industrial parks into IT parks was contained in guidelines for Hyderabad GRID (Growth in Dispersion) issued by the government in the orders. It said the objective of the GRID policy was to disperse IT around the city and not confine it to western corridor comprising Madhapur, Kondapur, Gachibowli, Kokapet, Ameenpur and Kukatpally only. Hence, industrial parks outside of western part of the city were identified for conversion into IT parks. This will ensure that the western part of the city which is already facing traffic congestion will not be further congested and the strain on infrastructure reduced.
The industrial parks which were also inside the ORR or those industrial parks containing core industries or those industrial parks causing pollution were also felt to be better suited for conversion into IT parks. If these industrial parks were converted into IT parks, it will improve the elevation and the quality of living in the city.
In addition, an IT tower will be created in northern part of the city in Kompally and an IT park will be created in the north western part of the city in Kollur/Osmansagar as part of dispersing the IT growth in the city.
The conversion will be taken up in multiple phases. In the first phase, parks chosen from east (Uppal, Pocharam, Nacharam area), north (Kompally area) and south (Shamshabad/airport) directions will be created as part of promoting IT around the city. Kollur/Osmannagar IT park (north west) and the industrial development area Katedan, Shamshabad and surrounding areas (south) were also planned in the first phase.
The remaining industrial parks will be taken up under subsequent phases for conversion and planned development.
At present, the following were the existing and new IT clusters in Hyderabad: west : Madhapur, Kondapur, Gachibowli and Kokapetl; south west : Rajendranagar, Badvel and Kismatpur; north : Kompally, Bahadurpally, Patancheru and Bowrampet; north West : Kollur, Osmannagar and Tellapur; south: Adibhatla and Shamshabad (including GMR Aerocity); east: Uppal and Pocharam; CBD: Begumpet, Sanatnagar and Banjara Hills.
The GRID guidelines were applicable to entire HMDA region excluding the western cluster which included Gachibowli, Kokapet, Madhapur, Raidurg, Puppalguda, Khajaguda, Narsingi, Nanakramguda, Kondapur, Khanamet, Guttala Begumpet, Manikonda, Nallagandla, Gopanpally, Gowlidoddi etc. The developed and developing areas of IT/ITES in the western part of the city were excluded from GRID incentives.
The categories of initiatives proposed in the guidelines were unit, anchor and developer incentives, infrastructural developments, institutional measures and branding and promotional activities.