Biggest software park coming up in Pune

By B. S. Ramesh

PUNE, MAY 15. Not so long ago, Pune was known for its manufacturing and automobile industries. Over the last few years, the city of the Peshwas has witnessed impressive growth in the IT sector with several companies such as Infosys and Satyam having set up shop here.

The thriving IT sector is likely to get a further impetus with the construction of the country's largest software technology park. Billed as a unique experiment in private participation, the software park and township, named as Magarpatta City, is coming up on 400 acres at Hadaspur on the Pune-Sholapur road. Conceived and being executed by Magarpatta Township and Construction Company Limited, the venture is promoted by all the 120 original land owners of Maragpatta. A predominantly agricultural community, the Magars came together under a unique land-pooling system and proposed to convert the land to construct a township, consisting of software offices, residential blocks, schools, colleges, gardens, restaurants, swimming pools and other recreational facilities.

Cyber City Magarpatta, the software park, when completed will house three million sq. ft. of modular office spaces. Several residential blocks are slated to come up all around the cyber city. Set to become operational in six months, the township when fully completed by 2008, will have more than 10,000 tenements.

The first phase of the Rs. 800 crore project is likely to be completed by 2003. The four sectors of the city have been so planned to accommodate more than 12,000 apartments in several neighbourhoods. Each neighbourhood comprises a cluster of 8-10 buildings interspread with gardens.

According to Mr. Satish Magar, Managing Director of Magarpatta Cyber City, the township which will be of international standards, would have the advantage of being landscapped with centralised security systems, well-connected to the rail and road ways and the airport.

Satellite and terrestrial links of 64 kbps will be provided for voice-data, video conferencing and high-speed connectivity through antennae, multi-point connections with customer work stations.

Mr. Magar said Cyber City Magarpatta had entered into strategic alliances with global entities such as Compaq, Microsoft, Avaya (formerly Lucent), 3Com, Nortel, IBM, AMP, Cisco, Oracle and Computer Associates to provide IT infrastructure.

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Section  : Business
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