European tech park shelved

The Haryana government has decided not to go ahead with the ambitious European Technology Park project due to "lack of interest" on the part of its promoters. Sanjeev K Ahuja reports.

The Haryana government has decided not to go ahead with the ambitious European Technology Park (ETP) project due to "lack of interest" on the part of its promoters - Dutch Haryana Business Consortium (DHBC) - a conglomeration of Dutch companies and the Haryana State Industrial & Infrastructure Development Corporation (HSIIDC).

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The project worth Rs 2,000 crore was proposed to come up on 500 acres of land on the Faridabad-Gurgaon border.

In 2006, the DHBC had planned the project comprising European residential and commercial architecture at Mangar village.

The HSIIDC had signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the DHBC in the Netherlands in October 2006 where Haryana chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda was also present.

The Haryana Investment Promotion Board (HIPB), in its letter to the DHBC, had stated that the "ETP project stands shelved as the promoters did not show interest."

Harish Mehta, director of Indian Affairs, DHBC, told HT that he was shocked to receive the letter from the state government referring to HIPB's recent meeting on the closure of the ambitious ETP project.

The proposed ETP was aimed at promoting European firms in the field of communication, biotechnology, F1 research, engineering and others.

Earlier in 2010, the state government had proposed to shift the ETP project to Palwal, off the KMP Expressway, but failed to take effective steps in this regard.

Mehta also alleged that the Haryana government was more interested in urban development in Mangar village for which it had notified a Mangar Development Plan in 2012, and the ETP was dropped from its priority list.