IANS

Bangalore, May 23: The Karnataka government is offering land and other incentives to investors to set up IT firms in smaller towns and cities beyond Bangalore in a bid to ensure that the state remains a prime destination in the knowledge sector.

"We are working on a hub-and-spoke model to attract investments in the knowledge sector with a two-pronged strategy. By positioning Bangalore as the hub and tier-two cities across the state as spokes, we want to ensure Karnataka remains the favourite IT destination in India," state Information Technology secretary MN Vidyashankar said.

"The new strategy will also help de-congest Bangalore and facilitate the uniform growth of secondary cities like Mysore, Mangalore, Hubli, Belgaum and Gulbarga with infrastructure, connectivity and human resources," the official said, listing a series of public-private partnership initiatives.

With Bangalore remaining the hot destination for IT investors, especially multinational companies, the government has set aside a massive 10,000 acres of land at Bidadi, about 30 km from the hi-tech city, for a planned Knowledge City with world class facilities.

The land has already been acquired and earmarked for IT and IT-enabled services, including outsourcing and call centers.

In all, 32 infrastructure players, including foreign firms, have bid for the global tender floated by the government. The bids will be opened in the next two months, Vidyashankar said.

A second project has developed around the upcoming international airport at Devanahalli, about 35 km from here, with the Karnataka Industrial Development Board in the process of building an electronic hardware technology park over 1,400 acres of land near the airport.