By P.K. Balachandran, IANS
Colombo : Indian realty firm Mahindra Lifespace Developers Ltd will build an IT park and a special economic zone (SEZ) in Sri Lanka.
The IT park, to be set up at a cost of $100 million, will be coming up at Katunayake near the Colombo international airport. The SEZ is to come up over a 900-acre plot in Kappalthurai in the eastern district of Trincomalee.
The agreement to set up the IT park was signed by Arun Nanda, vice-chairman of Mahindra Lifespace Developers Ltd, and the Sri Lankan minister for enterprise development, Sarath Amunugama, in the presence of the Indian minister of state of commerce, Jairam Ramesh, here Tuesday.
The agreement on the SEZ in Kappalthurai would be signed within 30 days, Ramesh told newspersons.
“The IT park will be set up over 53 acres and will have a built-up area of up to 3 million sq ft. When fully utilised, it will provide work for 25,000 people and 5,000 support service personnel. Up to 70,000 people may get indirect employment,” Nanda said.
“This is significant in as much as, presently, the IT sector in Sri Lanka provides employment to only 10,000,” Ramesh pointed out.
“The significance of the SEZ in the eastern province lies in the fact that it will be a manufacturing hub providing employment to all classes of people and not just the white collar personnel,” Nanda said.
The IT park and the SEZ would both be built to enable “plug and play”, added Naveen Dissanayake, the Sri Lankan minister for investment promotion.
Mahindra Lifespace Developers had developed expertise in building infrastructure for industrial complexes to such an extent that BMW told Wall Street Journal recently that they were able to start production in their Chennai plant in just seven months mainly because of the excellent facilities provided by the Indian company, Nanda said.
Minister for investment promotion Sarath Amunugama said the SEZ in Trincomalee would make peace meaningful to Tamils, Sinhalese and Muslims in the eastern province by enabling them to improve their economic conditions.
The eastern districts of Trincomalee, Batticaloa and Amparai were cleared of the Tamil Tiger rebels in mid-2007 after a year of fighting.
Amunugama said that Indian power utility NTPC Ltd and the Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB) would sign an agreement Wednesday to set up a 500 MW thermal power station in Trincomalee district. The plant is to cost $250 million.
Initially, the plant was to be in Sampur, an area recently captured from the Tamil rebels, but India objected to the location on technical grounds.
A new venue would be chosen, hopefully, at the meeting between the two sides Wednesday, officials said.