The plot where the park will come up. Picture by Pankaj Singh

A team of senior officials from Software Technological Parks of India (STPI) is learnt to have zeroed in on 2.78 acres, about 16km from Bokaro city, to set up a technology park.

The two-member team, including STPI assistant director Siddhartha Kumar Rai agreed on the land belonging to Bokaro Industrial Area Development Authority (Biada) as it fulfilled all the criteria for hosting such a park.

Not only is the area well connected, given its proximity to NH-23, making residential accommodation for employees easy, it also has access to water and round-the-clock power supply. Law and order is also not an issue.

Since August 3, the STPI team inspected several tracts of land belonging to Bokaro Steel as well as another plot belonging to Jharkhand State Housing Board at Chandankyari, about 26km from the city.

But the visitors felt the Biada land was best suited for setting up the technology park even though it was slightly less than three acres, the minimum area required for such a venture.

Highly placed sources said that ultimately, the location, near NH-23 that connects Ranchi with Bokaro and Dhanbad, was the clincher.

U.K. Singh, assistant director in the state IT department who accompanied the STPI team, expressed the hope that the technology park would not only provide a big boost to the local economy and overall educational atmosphere of the area, it would also provide jobs for at least 1,500 people.

Ranjit Kumar, Biada assistant development officer, said that besides land, the STPI officials also insisted on proper power supply, water and Internet connectivity.

“When we told them that the place gets power round-the- clock from DVC as well as from the state electricity board and that apart from BSNL, there were various private service providers like Tata Indicom, Reliance, Airtel and Vodaphone, the STPI officials were satisfied,” he added.

Biada hosts more than 400 industrial units in the zone, a factor which also went in Bokaro’s favour.