On the contrary, the ambitious project has failed to attract the IT bigwigs to set up their campuses here.

Now, the Haryana State Industrial and Infrastructure Development Corporation (HSIIDC) has allotted about 22 plots ranging between 1 to 10 acres for the first phase to be spread over approximately 75 acres, names like Infosys, Wipro, Tech Mahindra, TCS, Convergys, are still missing from the list.

The prime 10-acre plot has been allotted to the Rolling Construction, which has proposed to invest around Rs 354 crore. Nine plots of two-acre size have been allotted to companies like Parabolic Research Lab, Spice Communications, Praxton Impex, Comet Software and Haryana Infotech etc.

Twelve other sites ranging between 1-1.5 acre plots have been allotted to companies including Mobera Systems, Altruist Technologies, FCS Software Solutions, Innovative Solutions and Paramount Software.

The proposed investment by these companies is estimated to be over Rs 1,100 crore with direct employment potential for about 50,000 trained professionals and an equal number of avenues for indirect employment.

The HSIIDC officials admit that even though an advertisement was published but none of the big companies showed any interest in applying for a site in the IT Park.

"One of the major reasons for this is the IT companies are already present in the IT hub of Gurgaon and some of them have established their campuses in the Chandigarh Technology Park. So they don't want to have their new units near to the already existing ones," said an official from HSIIDC.

The companies too seem to be thinking on the same lines as the officials of a few IT companies, when contacted, reiterated the same reason.

A senior official from Infosys said: "We have acquired enough of space in the Rajiv Gandhi Chandigarh Technology Park and we have no plans to develop a new campus in Panchkula IT Park in the near future. Also, we are expanding our operations in Chandigarh so there is no need of fresh investments at present."

But for some small IT companies who couldn't acquire any land in the Chandigarh IT Park, this was another opportunity to own a site.

"The prices were comparable as the Chandigarh Administration was offering one acre plot for Rs 1.5 crore with a floor area ratio (FAR) of 1.25, HSIIDC offered one acre site for 3 crore with FAR of 2.5. We have got a one acre site and we plan to invest close to Rs 30 crore," said Puneet Vatsayan, Director of Chandigarh-based Mobera Systems.

Meanwhile, the infrastructure work including construction of RCC retaining wall along the Ghaggar River to protect the area from flood and soil erosion, construction of roads, laying of sewage scheme, drainage scheme, streetlight, has been completed.

Approval for the construction of 66 KV sub-station (Gas Insulated) has also been received from the Haryana Vidyut Prasaran Nigam and tender for the same is being invited. A sum of Rs 850.50 lakh has been incurred on the development works so far.