Bhubaneswar, the next stop for IT companies
A 205-acre IT park has turned Patia, a sleepy village on the outskirts of the capital city of Odisha, into a bustling urban centre.
In 2000, in order to attract IT companies, the Odisha government set up Infocity I, a 205-acre it Park, at Patia on the outskirts of Bhubaneswar. Today, this once sleepy village on the Nandan Kanan Road has emerged as a sprawling urban hub which houses some of the tech giants such as Infosys and TCS. The 16 km road linking Patia to the airport is one of Bhubaneswar's best.
Patia, which is identified as the area extending from Chandrashekharpur to Raghunatghpur and Kalrahanga and covering a distance of around 3 km, symbolises the growth of modern Bhubaneswar which is still expanding in all directions. "Bhubaneswar today needs around 150,000 housing units, and not more than 12,000 are available," says Susant Rout of Kalvik builders. That's one reason why real estate developers are turning to Patia, thanks to the easy availability of land. It now boasts of half-a-dozen housing colonies, three schools, five engineering colleges, one university, four hospitals and a swanky mall.
The IT Park pushed land prices up in Patia from Rs 6-7 lakh per acre in the early 1970s to Rs 10 crore an acre today. In 2005, Ajay Badjena, a 59-year-old entrepreneur, sold 10 acres at prices ranging between Rs 3 crore and Rs 4 crore per acre. Badjena is, however, not selling the remaining 10 acres he still owns. Instead, he will share ownership with developers who have built apartments on four acres of his land. He can retain ownership of the land and also avail of a share when the apartments are ready.
Several entrepreneurs have turned to real estate to take advantage of the housing requirement in Patia. But, according to Ratna Mala Swain, director of DN Homes, the construction boom in Patia is now reaching saturation point. Bhubaneswar is now poised to grow in other directions. Apart from Khurda, a town 25 km from the capital city, Cuttack and Puri are other cities that are moving towards greater level of urbanisation.
"The state government has signed mous with more than 50 companies in the last 10 years. A second Infocity and the Odisha branch of the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) will soon come up at Khurda. With people and investments coming in, demand for houses is bound to go up further. No wonder Bhubaneswar is among the six fastest growing middle-tier cities in India," says Swain.