A bigger Tidel II to dot Chennai skyline

S Gopikrishna


Chennai

To cater to the increasing demand for office space from software companies, Tidel II, a facility which is 2.5 times bigger than the existing Tidel Park, will come up adjacent to Tamil Nadu's showpiece software technology park at Taramani in South

Chennai.

The work on the new Rs 800-crore park is expected to be launched shortly.

Tidel Park, the Rs 320-crore project, with one million sq ft of office space was formally inaugurated on 4 July 2000. The project was completed in a record 16 months. Tidel Park is already the tallest building in Chennai and is a swank addition to the city's growing skyline. The State government is understood to have formally cleared the Tidel II proposal.

Tidel Park Limited, the joint venture initiative of TIDCO and ELCOT, is gearing up and all processes are thoroughly being examined to kick-off the Rs 800 crore project shortly. "After examining the potential for Tidel II, a market study was done by CB Richard Ellis and the draft report was in the affirmative," said BVM Sarma, Managing Director, Tidel Park Limited.

Tidel II, to be located adjacent to Tidel I campus, would have a built-up space of 2.5 million sq ft, readily available for software and IT-related companies with state-of-the-art infrastructure and facilities such as Internet connection, telecommunication service, uninterrupted power supply, conference halls, business rooms, cafeterias etc.

"The main reason for identifying a space, for Tidel II, close to the present Tidel campus, is to share the abundant resource available at this site like infrastructure of VSNL and STPI earth stations and DoT telephone exchange etc. The company plans to draw an optical fibre cable between these two sites for better connectivity," said Sharma.

According to officials, Tidel II, with a total built up space of 2.5 million sq ft, would be developed in three stages in the next three years. "Phase I, groundwork to be started shortly, will have a built-up space of over one million sq ft, similar to the size of existing Tidel Park. Phase II and III would be developed in the later stage based on the market conditions and financial resources," said Sharma. 

"Tidel II needs a huge investment of Rs 800 crore and project potential and feasibility study reports are being presented to various banks and financial institutions to raise the term loans. However, the exact proportion on loans and government participation on the equity and guarantee for term loans are yet to be decided. But acquiring land is not a real constraint for the project."

The company plans to adopt the same mode of receiving advance from the prospective tenants and doing marketing (selling the space) much before the completion of the project, as it did in Tidel I. 

"We expect to give more superiority and quality for our customers in this project, as we have hands-on experience in every field," said Sharma. "This time, we hope to sell 50 percent of the total built-up space to software companies setting up development and research centers, and balance for IT-enabled service providers such as call centers, medical transcriptions, legal transcriptions etc."

According to the study, Chennai is becoming the hot spot in India for setting up software activities, even for global companies. The much sought-after destination status was given to the city because of the availability of skilled workforce, quality infrastructure, industry-friendly policy from the government, better atmosphere and advantageous geographical position. "Chennai will not only be a hub for software development activities, but also for setting up IT-enabled support centers for the MNCs. Tamil Nadu has more number of engineering colleges and polytechnic institutes, besides arts and science college, producing skilled humanware," he said.

The company plans to go for transparent competitive structured bidding process in all the stages of the project.