Dy CM meets Rajnath Singh, seeks 750-acre defence land in Belagavi to set up IT park

Bengaluru: Deputy Chief Minister Dr C.N.Ashwatha Narayana, who also holds Electronics, IT/BT, and S&T portfolios, met Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, on Saturday and requested him to hand over 750 acres of defence land in Belagavi to facilitate establishment of an IT park.

"If this land is handed over to the State government, it would be used to establish an IT park and electronic hardware, aerospace and other manufacturing industries," he said.

"The land which originally belongs to Belagavi village is located adjacent to the National Highway No.4 and is ideal for the development of IT park. Though the State government had ordered the resumption of this land in November 2012, it is still in the possession of the defence department," Narayana told reporters after meeting Rajnath Singh.

The State has introduced a new IT policy recently and aims to retain its top ranking in the industry. Apart from this, Karnataka has also rolled out the 'Beyond Bengaluru' project with the objective of promoting IT/ITes, electronic industries in regions outside Bengaluru.

"In light of the above reasons, handing over the land in Belagavi would enable the growth of the IT-related industry so as to achieve balanced growth," he pointed out.

Belagavi is an educational hub and has such prestigious higher education institutes as IIT-Dharwad, IIIT-Dharwda and KLE.

"The proposed IT Park aims to generate about 60 lakh direct and indirect jobs and there has been a persistent demand for this from the representatives of the Belagavi region. Besides this would also help the State to contribute 30% to India's target of becoming a trillion-dollar economy", the minister added in the presence of Abhay Patil, MLA, Belagavi South.