The ministry of communication and information technology will soon come out with the final modalities for IT Investment Regions (ITIR) proposed to be set up in Andhra Pradesh, Orissa and Karnataka, a top official said on Wednesday.

The planning commission has in principle agreed for setting up projects in three states. As per the process we are in consultations with various departments. We are working out modalities. We will be able to come out with the finality in three-four months, IT secretary R Chandrasekhar told reporters on the sidelines of eIndia-2010,a three day conclave of IT and IT-related activities.

ITIRs are larger than IT SEZs and are specifically notified investment region with minimum area of 40 sq km planned for IT and ITeS and EHM units. The minimum processing area would be 40 per cent of the total area of the ITIR and the remaining will be for other infrastructure.

The Andhra Pradesh government has identified three locations including one at the international airport covering about 150 sq kilometers in Hyderabad for the ITIR.

A special purpose vehicle will be floated to execute the ITIR project, a senior state IT department official said.

Speaking on the National e-Governance Program (NEGP),Chandrasekhar said the government is going to spend Rs 40,000 crore in three to four years on different projects of the NEGP. This includes initial two to three years of the operational phase. The implementation of the project and the process of making services available is expected to complete by 2014, he said.

Source: exclventures 05/08/2010