As it sees good outlook for IT exports from the country, the Software Technology Parks of India (STPI) will create 10 lakh sq ft of office space, incubation and data centre space in the next two years with an investment of Rs 400 crore.

“We are going to open 10 more centres in tier-II and tier-III cities, including those in the north-eastern States. The outlook for the year is good. We are expecting a growth rate of more than 10 per cent this financial year,” STPI Director-General Omkar Rai told Business Line .

Last year, exports from STPI units touched the Rs 2.50-lakh-crore mark, including Rs 65,000 crore from Andhra Pradesh.

Omkar Rai was here on Wednesday in connection with the 22nd annual awards function of ITsAP (IT and ITES industry association of Andhra Pradesh).

Product companies “We will be spending Rs 300-400 crore on the space for the new units in the next two years. We will raise these funds internally. While some of this space would come in the new centres, the metro cities too would get a chunk of this,” he said.

The new centres would come at Bhopal, Jabalpur, Jamshedpur, Vijayawada, Dhanbad and in some North-Eastern cities. “We would like to encourage IT industry in the North-East,” the STPI official said.

He said the STPI would like to encourage product companies in the new centres.

“We will give them incentives for their innovative product ideas,” he said.

The STPI Director-General, however, admitted that a good number of the units faced challenges.

“It is part of dynamics of the industry. Some of them are trying to opt out,” he said.

He, however, said that it was common for units coming in and going out of the STPI purview.

> kurmanath.kanchi@thehindu.co.in

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