Star hotel in ITPL soon

BANGALORE: The International Tech Park Ltd (ITPL) at Whitefield, which for long has acted as a magnet drawing IT companies to the city, will soon have a five-star hotel and an international club on its premises.
ITPL CEO Chan Kah Hoe told The Times of India that he was in an advanced stage of negotiations with the Rs 600-crore Taj Group of Hotels to establish a 120-room hi-tech business hotel.
When contacted, Ravi Dubey, senior V-P, Corporate Affairs of the Indian Hotels Company Ltd, to which the Taj Group belongs, confirmed that discussions were underway. Once established, it will be the Group''s fifth property in Bangalore.
Also, the ITPL __ whose equity partners include a consortium of Singapore companies, the Tata Industries Ltd and the Karnataka Industrial Areas Development Board (KIADB) __ is shortlisting partners for the international club. ``These two projects have the potential to cater to the numerous corporates located in the vicinity. We want to be ahead of our competitors by providing value-added services. The idea is to constantly innovate. There is not a single park in India which can boast of our facilities,'''' Hoe said.
In another radical strategy, ITPL will allow companies to establish their own campuses on two or three acres of land within the 70-acre park, thus preventing them from taking flight.
The 400,000-sqft Explorer - the fourth building established by the Park, after its other buildings - Discoverer, Innovator and Creator - has already registered a 36 per cent occupancy. By this year-end, it is expected to be full.
``Our growth plan, which may include two more buildings, will be implemented in the next 7-10 years. There will be an emphasis on quality. Since inception we have invested around Rs 600 crore,'''' Hoe said.
Today, ITPL has over 90 companies functioning out of its premises, of which nearly half are foreign companies. Thirty-three per cent of them are in software production and 17 per cent in IT-Enabled Services (ITES).
``The average age of the employee working in ITPL is 26 years. Two years ago, it was 29 years. It''s a young and growing population and we need to cater to their tastes,'''' Hoe said.
In the coming months, the endeavour will be to target high-value, dynamic industries and enhance the employee strength in ITPL from the existing 7,000 to 11,000.