The city’s first incubation centre would come up at Software Technology Park at Patliputra. Picture by Ranjeet Kumar Dey

Enterprising minds wishing to start ventures of their own would soon have logistical and technical support thanks to Bihar’s first incubation centre coming up in Patna on Saturday.

Union communication and information technology minister Ravi Shankar Prasad will lay the foundation stone of the incubation centre at the Software Technology Park of India at the Patliputra Industrial Area on Saturday. Chief minister Jitan Ram Manjhi will also be present.

Sources in the state information technology department could not shed any light on the deadline for the project for it being a central project. They, however, hoped it would be complete in a year.

The decision to set up the centre at Patna’s software technology park is seen as an attempt of the Union government to connect Bihar with the country’s digital club. It’s a central government-funded project.

The incubation centre, being set up on an area of 10,000sqft at an estimated cost of Rs 10 crore, would function as a resource centre for IT exporting units. Entrepreueners can avail of infrastructure facilities such as state-of-the-art incubation services, high-speed data communication and other amenities for development and export of software and services.

Such incubation centres are becoming increasingly popular in India, as they allow start-ups to avoid initial costs and provide the necessary technical and financial support.

Manas Panda, director, Software Technology Park of India, said: “This incubation centre will be a boost to local entrepreneurs as it would provide a platform where the start-ups (small companies or individuals) can get amenities required to set up a company.”

A plan to set up an information technology park in Patna, on the lines of Hyderabad’s Software Technology Park and Bangalore’s International Tech Park, was also in the pipeline a while back. The project has failed to start yet.

Atul Sinha, director, technical science and technology department, Bihar, said: “Incubation centres are gaining in popularity in cities such as Bangalore, Hyderabad, Pune and Noida as these allow potential entrepreneurs to access technical and logistical support.”

Sinha said at Patna, too, technical experts and those capable of assisting entrepreneurs to market or sell their products would be available.

“If some projects take off thanks to the incubation centre, it will create job opportunities for many, just like Flipkart that was founded in 2007 by IIT alumni Sachin Bansal and Binny Bansal,” added Sinha.

Welcoming the decision to set up the incubation centre, National Institute of Technology, Patna, student Abhishek Kumar said: “It will help potential entrepreneurs make an career in IT. Many states have already moved forward in setting up such incubation centres. Even Telangana has decided to set up an incubation centre in Hyderabad.”

Couple of months back, the Telangana government sought financial assistance from the Centre for development of the proposed technology incubation centre in Hyderabad.

The centre is being set up in collaboration with the International Institute of Information Technology, Hyderabad, Indian School of Business and the Nalsar University of Law.