Mysore beckons IT companies

BANGALORE: The city of Mysore, which is associated with rich culture and palaces, is now trying to attract the cream of the IT industry. Companies such as Infosys, WeP, L&T Infotech and small and medium outfits like Aspire, Excel-Soft, Wi-fiy Net have set up base in the city. Infosys has its biggest training facility in Mysore and plans to expand next year. The Karnataka government is trying to promote growth of the industry especially BPO companies in secondary cities like Mysore.

State secretary for IT and BT Shankaralinge Gowda said, "While Bangalore would always be the hub for IT companies, Mysore is a less congested alternative and offers the advantage of good human capital and lower cost of operations." IT exports from Mysore stood at Rs 180 crore last year and is expected to touch Rs 400 crore by the year-end.

Mysore has already lodged itself on the hi-tech map by being the only city in India to be complately Wi-Fi enabled since October this year, thanks to the efforts of a local ISP, Wi-Fiy Net.

Speaking on the benefits of a presence in Mysore, Shankar Prasad, director of WiFiynet and member of the Mysore IT forum said, " The cost of land for housing and commercial activities is one tenth that of cities like Bangalore and other metros. The city also produces around 1600 engineers every year."

He also added that the availability of abundant bandwidth, presence of telecom players and a lot of land and space for housing were other benefits.

With the completion of the Bangalore-Mysore highway by March 2005, commuting between the cities would take about two hours. Gowda also mentioned that connectivity by air would increase this year with the government developing airports in Mysore as well as Gulbarga and Hospet.