L&T Infocity to invest Rs 200 crore on fourth phase of Hitec City

Srinivasa Rao Dasari / Hyderabad

The Andhra Pradesh government has kicked off the fourth phase of the Hyderabad Information Technology and Engineering Consultancy City (Hitec City) project following a good response to the earlier three phases that have been fully occupied by domestic and global IT majors. The state government has signed an MoU with L & T Infocity to take up the fourth phase of the project. As part of the MoU, the state government has allotted 14.09 acres to develop about 10 lakh sq ft of multi-tenanted buildings with world-class infrastructure for IT/ITeS activities. The fourth phase will be developed at an investment of Rs 200 crore. Hitec City has been moving up the value chain by developing into a total business space solution provider. As part of this, it has further diversified into consultancy services for development of IT-related infrastructure on national and international platforms.

As part of the original MoU agreement signed in 1996 between L&T and Andhra Pradesh Industrial Infrastructure Corporation (APIIC), two phases of Hitec City project—Cyber Towers and Cyber Gateway—were developed at an investment of Rs 400 crore. The third phase of the project, Cyber Pearl, is expected to be operational by March 2004. Currently, under construction, Cyber Pearl will create space of 5 lakh sq ft at a cost of Rs 150 crore. This facility is being developed under a joint venture between L&T Infocity and Ascendas India, a unit of a Singapore-based construction company. L&T Infocity has developed the first two phases and decided to take up the fourth phase on its own without roping in any third party. The lease value per sq ft in Cyber Pearl is around Rs 35 and it is likely to vary between Rs 35 to Rs 40 for the fourth phase.

“Though scheduled to be completed over seven years, hopefully it would be completed within the next three years to meet the growing demand from IT companies. This project has been very encouraging for us since it has not only created a world-class IT infrastructure, but has also carved a niche in the global IT market.

L&T’s equity in the project has grown to Rs 24 crore from Rs 11 crore, R Sridharan, chief operating officer of L & T Infocity, told Express Computer. Apart from building world-class IT infrastructure, L&T Infocity is also planning to add food courts and other entertainment projects for IT professionals.

“By 2008, a total of 60 lakh sq ft of space will be available in the Hitec City project, with 30 lakh sq ft already available now. Coming to creation of job opportunities, the two phases of the Hitec City project currently employ over 12,000 professionals and we hope this headcount will touch the 75,000-mark in the near future,” Ajay Sawhney, additional secretary (IT&C dept), told Express Computer.

L&T Infocity is also developing a modern ‘built-to-suit’ facility of 2-lakh sq ft for HSBC in Vizag. This new facility is expected to be operational by March 2004.