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CIDCO needs partner for software park

CIDCO Vice-Chairman and Managing Director Vishwas S Dhumal has said that the proposed park would be developed on a "build, own, operate and transfer" basis. The aim is to create a self-sustained township spread over

T O D A Y

• The Race For Speed • Software prices rise • Tanitec launch in June • CIDCO seeks partner

37.12 hectares, with modern infrastructure and services that would be ideal for non-pollutant and export-oriented industries.

Dhumal is not divulging names of the prospective partners but industry sources claim Singapore based Jurong Park Authority, Larsen and Toubro and Mahindra and Mahindra are in the running.

When contacted, none of these companies were willing to comment and said that nothing has been finalised yet.

Senior CIDCO officials pointed out that the Department of Electronics has given an "in-principle permission" to provide a satellite communication link to the proposed park.

Another idea that was mooted some time back was to provide a kind of networking facility for the entire complex to facilitate easy information exchange.

Market analysts point at Bombay's Santa Cruz Electronic Export Processing Zone, meant exclusively for 100 per cent export production. It has met with tremendous success. As there is hardly any scope for expansion at the Bombay complex, the new park could easily take up the 125 unit applications that are pending.

"Revenues for the project would be generated from the sale and lease of industrial, residential and commercial facilities, while resource raising and the subsequent execution, would be carried out through a special company to be promoted in association with our yet to be finalised partner," said a CIDCO executive.

Experts watching infrastructure development appear to be upbeat about the transport linkages to the project - crucial for the success of any such park. As far as road connections go, apart from the NH4B highway linking Pune, Bombay and Goa and the SH41, linking Panvel and Uran, another trans-harbour link between New Bombay and Bombay is on the cards, they claim.

On the railway front, the Panvel-JNPT, Panvel-Uran and the proposed Belapur-Uran link would complete the picture. The hovercraft service to the Gateway of India and the Jawaharlal Nehru Port would also accrue as part of the benefits in the water transport sector, they added.

- Compiled from the Indian media

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