Islamabad: Land acquired for IT park

[Naveed Yaseen]

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Software Export Board (PSEB) has acquired around 15 acres of land at prime location in the Federal Capital to construct IT park in order to nourish the rapidly growing sector.

The construction of this park will commence in January 2009 and is expected to be completed by January 2011, said an official at PSEB on Friday. The official also said a Letter of Intent (LoI) has already been issued to a consortium of international consultants, for the establishment of IT Park at Chak Shahzad, to be developed on Built Operate and Transfer (BOT) model.

He said with an expected development cost of more than Rs9 billion, the IT Park will provide 1.5 million sq ft of contemporary office space to the local and international ICT companies and service providers. PSEB is currently managing ten IT Parks across Pakistan and is in the process of constructing three new in major cities.

The purchase of land measuring six acres each, for the establishment of parks at Lahore and Karachi Airports is also in process of acquisition. He said PSEB has also joined hands with Shaheen Foundation to set-up a new state-of-the-art IT Park in Lahore. Operational from this November, the facility will be one of the largest IT Parks in the country with redundant connectivity, power backups and top-of-the-line civic amenities.

The park, measuring 360,000 square feet, will be used for the international branding of Pakistan’s IT industry and can house more than 30 medium-sized IT companies at affordable rents.

http://www.thenews.com.pk/daily_detail.asp?id=134065