APIIC takes back land from Kenexa

By SNV  Sudhir 

Visakhapatnam, Jan 24:  After many twists and turns in the tale AP Industrial Infrastructure Corporation (APIIC) finally took possession of 21.4 acres of unused land allotted to the Kenexa Corp out of the total 25 acres on Hill No 2 in the IT SEZ at Rushikonda.

In a bid to stop APIIC from taking over the land from Kenexa Global, which is now a part of IBM, its Indian arm Kenexa Technologies Private Ltd (KTPL) approached a civil court in Hyderabad in November against Kenexa Global and IBM Corporation.
However APIIC authorities confirmed Deccan Chronicle that they have recovered the unused land as IBM which had taken overt Kenexa Corp as part of a global acquisition was ready to surrender it. APIIC had earlier served notices to pay penalty or surrender a portion of land that was allotted to them for failing to provide jobs as promised during the allotment of land in 2008. 

KTPL promised to create 2,500 jobs, but managed to provide only 384. After repeated notices APIIC had decided to take back the remaining unused land of 21.4 acres, the way the Corporation taken back the land allotted even from Indian IT giants such as Wipro after they failed to keep up the promise of job creation.

With IBM backtracked on paying the penalty, Kenexa Corp decided to handover te unused land allotted to it by APIIC through its Indian arm KTPL. And IBM reportedly not keen on expanding its operations at Madhurawada IT SEZ,  and willing to handover the remaining land than that where a building of KTPL stands, the local top executives who were not willing to part with the land had approached court in Hyderabad challenging Kenexa Corp’s decision.

“Since they violated the agreement that was signed with us during the allotment by not providing jobs we have taken back the land after serving many notices. We are looking into various options of utilizing the recovered land,” APIIC Zonal Manager, TV Ramana Murthy told this correspondent.