Three Information Technology parks, being developed by the Tamil Nadu Government in Tier II cities, would be inaugurated before the end of this year, state IT Minister Poongothai said today.

"Tamil Nadu is one of the few states in the country to have lot of IT parks. Currently work is on nine IT parks in places like Tiruchirapalli, Tirunelveli, Madurai, Salem, Coimbatore and Hosur," she told reporters.

The Tiruchirapalli IT Park which is being set up at a cost of Rs 14.23 crore, Tirunelveli (Rs 13) crore and Madurai IT Park (Rs 22 crore) were in advanced stages. "These IT parks will be inaugurated before the end of this year", she said.

ELCOT (Electronic Corporation of Tamil Nadu) is promoting the nine IT parks in Tier I and II cities. These are being set up under Public Private Partnership mode in Tier II cities.

A large number of companies had expressed interest in the Tiruchirappalli IT park, she said they had recently completed a roadshow to promote the IT Parks.

Tiruchirappalli, Tirunelveli and Madurai would have mini-buildings of about 50,000 sq ft each. Tiruchirapalli park is filling up fast and nearly about 32,000 sq ft had already been reserved while for Tirunelveli 9,000 sq ft had been booked, she said.

After the government eased the eligibility norms, even smaller companies willing to take one acre of land had evinced keen interest in these IT Parks. As per earlier stipulation, the companies should have a minim revenue of Rs five crore and acquire at least five acres in these IT Parks.

Poongothai was speaking after formally launching new websites initiated by ELCOT. A new Tamil Nadu E-Governance Agency (TNeGA) website, and ELCOT Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) website were among the sites launched by her.

TNeGA website provides information on various projects involved including in E-districts, ICT Academy, common service centres and capacity building.

On the ERP website, ELCOT MD Santhosh Babu said it can be implemented in any government office. "Currently TADCO and TAMIN are implementing it", he said. This website helps on monitoring of file transfers, HR management including various project managements.

"Even a lower level employee wanting to take leave has to log into this website with his ID and password to apply for leave", he said.

He also said Wipro Technologies was involved in developing a full-fledged data centre at a cost of Rs 53 crore as part of National e-governance project. "We hope it will be completed by October 2010",he added.