KalingaTimes Correspondent
Bhubaneswar: With a number of IT companies arriving in the State to start their operations in and around Bhubaneswar, Orissa Government has decided to set up of a second Infocity and ensuring faster implementation of the Knowledge Park project.

The decision in this regard was taken at a meeting of the IT Task Force. The meeting was chaired by Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik.

The second Infocity will be set up over an area of 671 acres near Bhubaneswar. The Orissa Industrial Infrastructure Development Corporation (IDCO) will set up the project, and the State government will apply for obtaining special economic zone status for it.

The Knowledge Park project, to be set up near the proposed Indian Institute of Information Technology (IIIT), will be completed in time, the meeting decided.

The State attracted 14 IT companies during 2005-06 and 19 during 2006-07. The number of IT professionals in the State was likely to cross the 10000 mark in a few years.

The major IT ventures the State has attracted include a global training centre proposal of Wipro. The company would be provided 100 acres of land between Puri and Konark to set up the centre to train 3000 IT professionals.

The Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group is also planning to establish an IT project to be named Dhirubhai Ambani IT Centre on the outskirts of Bhubaneswar over 40 acres of land.

In order to meet the housing requirement of the growing number of IT professionals, the meeting also decided to set up residential complexes for their benefit.