Ranchi, July 29: As many as eight IT companies that signed MoUs during the February Global Investors' Summit in Ranchi can finally expect to get office space as the state government today identified a new building at Namkum, 15km from the city, to accommodate them.

Chief secretary Rajbala Verma, chief minister's secretary Sunil Kumar Barnwal, IT secretary Satendra Singh, IT director UP Sah along with other officials of the agriculture and cooperatives department, today visited the five-storied, new building of 80,000 sq feet area and issued directives to use it to house the firms.

Representatives of these companies, who were also called for today's visit to verify the space being offered, said they were satisfied with the choice.

"The property belongs to the state cooperatives department. It will now be transferred to Jharkhand Industrial Area Development Authority (JIADA). JIADA will maintain the building in lieu of rent which investors will pay. The cooperatives department spent Rs 1.65 crore on the building, but it does not need it at the moment. So, we decided to take it over for our purpose," said an official.

After the February meet, this was the first major allocation of space for IT investors.

The official said the firms would be allotted the space officially at a programme scheduled in September to mark 1,000 days of the government. From Monday, work on setting up internet connectivity and a power transformer will begin," he said.

Among the companies that are expected to get space at the Namkum building are

Ison BPO India, Connect3 Globe Solutions, IB Hubs - iBuild Innovations India and Tatwa Technologies.

According to a press release issued in the evening, the state government hopes that these companies would generate over 6,000 jobs.

"These companies will collectively bring in invest of around Rs 100 crore, but jobs would be more. For example, Ison BPO and Tatwa will set up a 1,600-2,000 seater BPO. Similarly, ARF designs will make semi-conductors and allied products. Connect3 is a software making company," another IT department official said.

According to a senior official, although several IT companies were interested to set up shop in Jharkhand, lack of land and space was emerging as a major deterrent.

"Everyone wants space in Ranchi, but we don't have any built-up space in the capital. For example, a company called VMC Technologies wanted 10acre land in the capital, promising to generate 2 lakh jobs in two to three years. But we are helpless due to scarcity of land and space here," he said.

The official said the government was able to offer land in other districts and cities like Dhanbad and Jamshedpur, but nobody wants to go because of road and air connectivity issues.

"IT companies want built-up space and we don't have these in Ranchi. The key for the government now is to invest on creating built-up spaces by taking over buildings that are not in use. We will moot a proposal in this regard soon," he explained.