The Rajiv Gandhi IT Habitat project will soon get a fresh leaseof life albeit in a new avtar.
“Fresh allotment of plots to IT players will start by yearend,” informed MLA Subhas Fal Dessai the chairman of Info Tech Corporation ofGoa Ltd.
The IT Habitat project at Dona Paula was stalled because ofthe violent protests by locals led by the then Taleigao MLA Atanasio Monserrate.
The locals had alleged irregularities in the projectindicating that in the name of IT real estate biggies were allotted land.
“The project was stalled on controversial circumstances.There were charges that plots were allotted at a concessional rate to realestate lobby without keeping any cap on selling price to the IT players. Thusbuilders would have got huge business at government cost,” Fal Dessai informed.
The Info Tech Corporation of Goa Limited (ITCGL) hadinitially allotted 18 plots at the IT Habitat, which has an area of around 2.6lakh sq m. Plots ranging from 5,176.20 sq m to 40,558.73 sq m were leased at arate of Rs 4,600 per sq m.
These were the revised rates after allegations that plotswere allotted at much lower than market rates.
ITCGL had also created four sub-divided plots for other“supporting facilities”.
The present market rate of property near the IT habitat siteat Dona Paula is around Rs 50,000 per square meter. The rate will double incase of a developed area.
“The State government in order to encourage IT investors hasdecided to allot the plots to new players at a concessional rate and in atransparent manner following all statutory procedure inviting applicationsafter advertising nationally,” Fal Dessai said.
