Coimbatore : At last Coimbatore IT.com, conceived as a mega marketing exercise to promote IT industry in the textile city, will be launched on Friday. The event, organised by CII in association with Elcot, TN IT dept, STPI and VSNL, is expected to mould Coimbatore into a major IT destination.``Our idea is to attract IT majors to set shop here and motivate non-IT companies to diversify into IT. A major initiative is being made jointly by the various organisations here to showcase the city's infrastructure availability to make it an IT Technopolis,'' said Mr G C Nageswaran, chairman of Coimbatore IT.com panel.The idea was first mooted by the present executive director of PSG STEP (software entrepreneur park established by the PSG institutions) V Raghavendra Prasad over two years back. Though it failed to take off on many occasions, events highlighting Coimbatore's potential to be a preferred IT destination were being held.
The Friday event, which has the blessings of major corporates and industry & trade associations here, will have two technical sessions and a conference on ``Dispersing IT prosperity geographically-a national imperative''.
According to Mr Prasad, there is every chance for the city to emerge as one of the major IT destinations in this region if one goes by the infrastructure availability. At least four software technology parks, with a total area of around 5 lakh sq ft, are being planned in the city - K Raheja group and Rajshree group (of Rajshree Sugars) projects are also included. This is apart from at least two engineering institutions- Kongu Engineering college and Kumaraguru College of Technology-earmarking area for software development. The Coimbatore Stock Exchange has already offered some area for software development companies.
``There is heavy demand for vast area. Once these parks come up we expect some of the major IT companies to come down here,'' Mr Prasad added.
Copyright © 2000 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.