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Karnataka signs MoUs for Rs 40 billion

The month-long global investors' meet, or GIM, organised by the government of Karnataka in partnership with the Confederation of Indian Industry, or CII, began with a bang. Global and domestic players -- Reliance Industries, BPL, Enron India, Lucent Technologies, and Bharti Telecom - came forward with concrete proposals to invest in the state on the day one itself.

The first to enter into a memorandum of understanding, or MoU, with the Department of Information Technology was Reliance Industries Limited, or RIL, when its vice-chairman and managing director Mukesh Ambani signed the MoU at the inaugural session of the GIM in Bangalore on Monday for setting up about 7,500 Mahiti Centres (information kiosks) across the state by March 31, 2001.

Signing the MoU, Ambani said: "We expect around 745 kiosks to be set up in the twin cities of Hubli-Dharwad by the year-end for facilitating the transfer of land records to about 6 million farmers in the north region of Karnataka."

Reliance also proposes to invest in the Electronics' City on the outskirts of Bangalore for the setting up of a Software Technology Park, or STP, at a projected investment of Rs 16.50 billion ($ 370 million).

According to state IT secretary Vivek Kulkarni, the government proposes to sign 5 agreements for laying the fibre optic networks across the state. "The IT department has received proposals from seven major Indian companies, namely Reliance, BPL, Enron India, Lucent Technologies, Bharti Telecom, Zee Group, and SpectraNet with a total investment of Rs 40 billion for laying the networks connecting VSNL at Pune and Bombay."

The IT department has signed three separate MoUs for the fibre optic network projects with Reliance Industries, BPL, and Enron India at the GIM's inaugural session, and the remaining tie-ups are expected to be signed by the end of the two-day conference.

For the state-of-the-art global Data Centre to be set up in Bangalore soon, the IT department has also entered into an MoU with Enron India for providing high bandwidth as well as international connectivity.

As part of the state government's millennium IT policy, termed 'Mahithi', offering a plethora of reliefs and concessions, the IT department has received proposals for the setting up of 11 STPs with a combined investment of Rs 9.17 billion ($ 206 million) from RIL, Infosys Technologies, Satyam Computers, Digital Equipment, and others. "Five of them will be located outside Bangalore, i.e., Mysore and Hubli."

As part of infrastructure projects, the state government has received enquiries from many reputed telecom companies from India and abroad for the setting of an IT backbone across the state, including a data super-highway.

For instance, Megabyte Infosys Limited, a Reliance Group company, has proposed to lay state-wide telecom networks by digging ducts for optical fibre cable networks, or OFCNs, along the national and state highways, besides the roads leading to towns and villages across the state for providing connectivity to all districts.

Covering a distance of 3,000km, the proposed investment will be around Rs 5.25 billion ($ 118 million).

Similarly, BPL Broadband Network Limited has proposed to lay 12/24 optical fibre network covering a distance of 242km along the national highway number 4 leading to Pune-Bombay in the first phase. In the second phase, the network will be extended to cover all district headquarters, covering a total length of 5,500km OFCN.

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