Himachal may consider change in IT park RFP

NEW DELHI, INDIA: The IT Department of Himachal Pradesh has shown flexibility to accept some changes in RFP (request for proposal) based on suggestions made by stakeholders at the time of pre-bid conference scheduled on this October 3.

“As of now we have rigorously worked on RFP. After a lot of efforts the present RFP has been approved by the cabinet. Therefore we can think of making some changes in RFP that will make sense for the project, state and the proposal should be from serious investors,” said BK Aggarwal, Principal Secretary, DoIT, HP at stakeholders meet held in Delhi.

“We are open to ideas and may consider making some change that will be proposed by serious developers. These changes will be considered only during pre-bid conference,” he said.

The department has revised it estimates for development of external infrastructure from earlier proposed investment of Rs 50 crore approximately. The state government will now spend between Rs 70 to Rs 80 crore on development of external infrastructure.

Some of the commitment that the department has given under this spent are converting of single lane road connectivity from national highway-22 into double lane, a 132 KV single circuit transmission line and cost of acquisition of land.

The tender for this IT park would be opened on October 26 and on the same day Letter of Intent would be provided to the developer. Thereafter the developer would be given six months' buffer period to complete regulatory obligations for setting up this IT park.

“Though it will be the obligation of the developer to get clearances, we will help them in getting all kinds of clearances from the government,” said Subhashish Panda, director, DoIT, HP.

The total time for the completion of this project is four years which will be counted after buffer period. The developer will have to complete the development of 60 per cent of the 11 lakh square feet of built-up office facility and 9.5 acres of IT plots in the first two years.

The development of the entire residential facility shall have to be accomplished within four years of the effective date. These residential plots will be available for only those who work in this IT park.

DoIT has decided to choose vendors on the basis of points, which will be awarded on the basis of turnover, networth and cash accrual. The developer will have to make upfront payment Rs 10 crore and will have to make a total investment of Rs 500 crore over a period of 16 years after the initial moratorium of three years.

However, one of the developers present at the stakeholder meet expressed that this investment can go up to Rs 1000 crore as per the government’s plan.

DoIT said 50 developers have shown interest in the project till date and have downloaded RFP document. The stakeholders meeting held today saw representation from Mahindra World City, L&T, Eldeco Infrastructure, C&C construction, Essar Constructions, TDI Infrastructure, Bhartia Group, Princeton, Florida-based Creative Choice Homes among others.