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The Case of the IT Park: Analysing the International Tech Park, Bangalore
through the Eco Industrial Approach in Urban Planning

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 1

The Case of the IT Park: Analysing the International Tech Park, Bangalore
through the Eco Industrial Approach in Urban Planning

Rashmi Nayar
Deepa Kylasam Iyer
National Law School of India University, Bangalore

June 2016

Abstract
Eco-industrial approach to urban planning views a component in the urban system in
relation to others through spill over. IT Parks as a subsystem has a number of organic
relations with the macro environment of local economy and ecology. The paper
examines the case of one IT park as conceptualised as a self sufficient unit in the city of
Bangalore and the way interactions have taken place in a span of two decades. The
study uses both primary and secondary data for analysis.

Keywords: Eco industrial approach, Urban planning, IT sector, Bangalore

Eco Industrial Parks: Context and Questions

The United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) has released a report on the
management of industrial parks. There are around 12000 industrial parks and export
processing zones around the world, most of which are concentrated in the developed
world. Due to the compact nature of the development of these zones and the millions of
people it employs, there has been a recent and renewed interest in the design and
functioning of these parks and ways to regulate their efficiency and energy. The UNEP
guidelines are for design and management of industrial parks. With the development of
Bangalore as an IT hub since 1998 when the first IT park was set up, the city has been
grappling with the management challenges of such designated zones. There are two
broad approaches to the idea of managing eco industrial parks- one is that of managing
material and energy flows and the other, of larger ownership of the whole process with
the help of larger connections and greater control of a wide range of variables over and
above material and energy flows. The second approach involves the social and
community sustainability measures like walk to work, support structures like health
centres and schools within the park that is primarily based on employment of its
inhabitants. Over the recent years (Cote and Rosenthal 1998), the social aspect of
industrial park management has gained currency. However, specific study on business
parks in India within this approach is missing. This paper attempts to study one
business park in the city of Bangalore to analyse its economic, ecological and social
dimensions of management through the industrial ecology approach.
 2

The study attempts to understand the spread and growth of industrial parks in the city
in the period 1998-2015 and the way industrial parks in general have facilitated
interactions with the city around them. The primary research question is to evaluate
one business park in the city of Bangalore through the industrial ecology approach. The
IT park chosen for the study is International Tech Park (ITPL). The study attempts to
understand whether the IT park as a self sustained community is functional with
respect to walk to work claim. The paper is divided into three parts. In the first part, a
brief review of literature points to the evolving definition of sustainability in the
industrial ecology approach. The second part deals with the evaluation of the selected
industrial park through primary as well as secondary data. The final part analyses the
findings and provides conclusion.

Brief Review of Literature

Resource recovery and recycling in pre industrial urban loops were found very early in
history. Cities have always managed a large number of industrial loops. Archaeological
evidence suggests that perishable slaughter waste was fed into small industry in late
Stone Age city of Çatal Hüyük in Turkey1. In the Roman era, there were shops that were
strategically located close to slaughter houses that made products like pins and nuts
from bones and other waste products of the abattoir.2

The history of the early American cities also suggest that swine was raised next to liquid
distilleries to feed on its waste. The milk industry slowly fed on the mash of these
distilleries and by early nineteenth century there was a symbiotic relation between the
dairy industry and liquid distilleries of New York. Perishability remained an important
concern that determined the location and sustainability of various industries.

The idea and the significance of industrial loops have been around in record at least
since the beginning of the nineteenth century. Charles Babbage (1835) observing the
English industrial units remarked that managing waste can be done by ‘the union of two
trades in one factory, which otherwise might have been separated’.3Simmonds (1862)4
analysed the five major industries of Victorian England-cotton, wool, silk, leather and
iron- and observed that the waste of one industry could be the raw material of another
in principally large industrial sectors where the scale of operation was high.

The development of waste to resource recycling, currently referred as ‘industrial

symbiosis’ was getting attention during the first world war years especially in Germany.

1
Mellaart (1967) Mellaart, James. 1967. Çatal Hüyük. A Neolithic Town in Anatolia. New
York: McGraw-Hill Book Company.
2
Chevalier (1993).
3
Babbage deals extensively on industrial loops as early as 1835 in his seminal essay On the Economy of
machines and Manufactures (as quoted in Desrochers 2001).
4
Waste Products and Undeveloped Substances: Or, Hints for Enterprise in Neglected Fields. London: Robert
Hardwicke.
 3

Talbot (1920)5 was writing about the German resourcefulness in finding a use for
‘refuse’ and making it the raw material for some other company in the early twentieth
century.

In his paper Pierre Desrochers (2001)6, argues that EIPs work better through market
approaches than public planning. Public sector can work either by building the industry
from scratch or by virtually looping the selected industry for resource recovery and
recycling. Citing the case of Kalundbourg, Denmark which was the first case of industrial
ecology that networked four industries in a small city, he illustrates how private players
spontaneously came to the idea of looping industry to manage waste and generate
resources through private agreements. In this manner, the looping was more
spontaneous and driven by market phenomena like price loops, technology and private
property rights than by command and control laws and regulations. The New York
animal slaughter market that created resources for textile industry is another example.

Secondly, he also recognises that though industrial ecology views the system to be
composed of a symbiotic loop of players, most of the operations trade outside the loop,
making them open systems. Linked operations reduce the use of virgin materials, waste,
pollution and increase energy efficiency and market values of products. These are also
gradual developments and not forcefully planned entities.

Pellenbarg (2002) examines the shift in the concept of eco industrial parks and the
related consequences in urban planning. From the early twentieth century emphasis on
location of an industry based on the cost of transport and labour, the shift has been
towards ‘agglomeration’ effects of symbiosis. This has resulted in emphasis being given
to living conditions, environmental concerns, access to knowledge, quality of life
variables. As a result even policy framework is shifting from pure industrial spatial
planning to mixed use zones.

Analysing the relation between planning networks and EIPs further, Roberts (2004)
calls for city wide analysis of ‘assessing waste flows, markets, transport costs,
infrastructure, public attitudes, social and economic impacts, and risks’ before setting
up an EIP. This would in turn lead to a policy that takes into account development plans,
organisational structure, financial risks and public attitude. This approach also
highlights externalities savings, economies of scale and innovation in dealing with
challenges of site management and tenancy relations.

A broad survey of literature suggests a number of factors essential for the successful
management of EIPs some of which are listed in table 1.

5
Henry J Spooner’s Wealth from Waste (1918) and Frederick Talbot’s Millions from Waste (1920) talk about
industrial symbiosis in early twentieth century. However industrial cities like Paris and London were already
using waste-energy loops in the nineteenth century in urban centres. The waste was supplied by agriculture in
the peri urban areas. See De Silguy (1989) for more on Flemish and French agriculture.
6
The paper Eco Industrial Parks: A case for private planning.also traces the idea of industrial loops shortly after
the third wave of industrialization beginning with Charles Babbage.
 4

Table 1: Factors Affecting EIP functioning

Characteristics of successful EIPs

Cooperation between firms and local government
Broad range of participation between stakeholders (public utility, local company, trade
unions, environmental organisations, experts and community)
Presence of trust between firms
Regular public monitoring of goals achieved
Public relations and widespread information dissemination
Source: Modified from Tudor et al (2004)

Concepts and Definitions

An industrial park is defined as ‘a large tract of land, sub-divided and developed for the
use of several firms simultaneously, distinguished by its shareable infrastructure and
close proximity of firms’.7 Industrial parks include industrial estates, industrial districts,
export processing zones, industrial clusters, business parks, office parks, science and
research parks, and bio-technology parks. Eco-industrial parks have now been added to
this list.

An Eco Industrial Park (EIP) is a network of companies operating out of a single region
that makes use of the resource requirements and waste generation of one another by
trading. The idea comes from a stream of economists who perceive waste as a resource.
The basic premise of industrial ecologists is in mimicking nature in which waste
produced is consumed or recycled. Industries and companies are classified as
producers, consumers or scavengers in the waste-energy loop. The application of the
idea has been widely used for sustainable development of regions. EIPs utilise three
types of ecological framework- industrial ecology, biological ecology and spatial
ecology.

7
Cote and Rosenthal (1998:182).
 5

Table 2: Options for cooperation in EIPs

Source: Tudor et al (2007)

Sustainability concerns attempt to address social dimension, ecological integrity and

economic efficiency. World Conservation Strategy in 1980, Our Common Future the
report of the World Commission on Environment and Development in 1987 and Agenda
21 in 1992 has resulted in gradual acceptance that sustainability as a goal for urban
centres. Sustainability was defined to have four dimensions- economic, ecological, social
and institutional. This application to industry led to a systems view of the city that
focuses both on interaction and interconnectedness of participants. This is a major shift
away from the earlier view of industrial systems that stresses independence and
competition. Industries are embedded in a chain of consumers, resources like land and
water and waste energy products that are analogous to a natural system. The benefits of
sharing by products as inputs in another industry are done through shared mutual
interests than overarching planning. Business competitiveness and improved efficiency
encourage business to shift to industrial ecology approach than an independent one.

Location of IT Parks and urban growth pattern in Bangalore

The origin of the growth of the software industry in Bangalore can be traced to the entry
of Texas Instruments, the first multinational company to have a base in this city in 1985.
This paved way for entry of smaller domestic software companies to undertake
software projects for overseas clients. In order to promote this industry, the
government envisaged the establishment of dedicated business parks for this purpose
(Vijayabaskar and Krishnaswamy 2004).

IT parks such as ITPL and Electronic City were established at the outskirts of the city.
However, over the years, with the city constantly expanding and developing, these once
remote pockets are now very much integrated within the main city limits.
 6

Establishment of IT parks in Bangalore have resulted in the following effects on the

surrounding areas:

1. Increase in land value

2. Development of related industries
3. Increase in housing and apartment complexes

A visible effect of these parks is how the city has grown since the establishment of major
tech parks. The following maps illustrate the pattern of urban growth in Bangalore since
1996.

The data source for this series of maps is the Urban Growth Monitoring section of the
Bhuvan portal8. Locations of the following tech parks are added to this:

1. Electronic City:It is one of India's largest electronic industrial parks, formed in

1978 and spread across 332 acres (1.3 km²) in Bangalore. It consists of three
zones– Phase I, Phase II and Phase III.
2. The International Tech Park Bangalore (ITPB or ITPL): This was created as a
result of a joint venture between India and Singapore in January 1994.
3. Manyata Tech Park: Manyata Embassy Business park is situated in Hebbal on
Outer Ring Road, and is spread over 424 acres. It has been in operation since
2006.
4. RMZ Ecospace Business Park: This project located on Sarjapur Outer Ring Road
was designed by DP Architects from Singapore and completed in 2006. It has 9
blocks and is spread across an area of approximately 24 acres.

8
http://bhuvan.nrsc.gov.in/urban/sprawl/urbangrowth.php
 7

Map 1: Urban Growth and IT parks in Bangalore -1996

ITPL

Electronics City

Map 2:Urban Growth and IT parks in Bangalore -2002

ITPL

Electronics City
 8

Map 3:Urban Growth and IT parks in Bangalore -2008

Manyata

ITPL

RMZ Ecospace

Electronics City

Map 4:Urban Growth and IT parks in Bangalore -2013

Manyata

ITPL

RMZ Ecospace

Electronics City
 9

The Notion of an IT Park as a Self Contained City: The case of ITPL

No business park functions in isolation. As seen in the previous section, the

development of IT parks in Bangalore has had an impact on the urban growth pattern.
While this provides a macro level view of the phenomenon, an analysis of one IT park-
ITPL provides insights into the notion of an IT park as a self contained city and what
needs are met internally or externally.

ITPL is located in the Whitefield cluster in Bangalore, Whitefield was initially a small
settlement to the east of Bangalore city till the late 1990s when the local IT boom turned
it into a major suburb and hub for the technology industry.

Methodology

A questionnaire was circulated among 15 employees of software companies located in

and around ITPL. There were 11 respondents.

The respondents are employees of the following companies in ITPL:

1. Shell
2. Oracle
3. TCS
4. Mu Sigma
5. Tesco

The following age groups were considered to reflect the different job levels:

1. 20-30 years
2. 30-40 years
3. above 40 years

Findings

The main findings with details of age groups, place of work, residence and distance from
place of work are presented in Table 3.
 10

Table 3: Main findings

Place of Type of
S.No Age Work Residence Residence Distance from
group (ITPL) ITPL (km)
Above Prestige Ozone, Apartment
1 40 Shell Whitefield 5.5
Above Adarsh Palm Meadows, Independent
2 40 Oracle Whitefield house 4
Above Independent
3 40 TCS Indiranagar house 15
Old Madras Rd, Apartment
4 30-40 TCS Krishnarajapura 10
Old Madras Rd, Apartment
5 30-40 TCS Krishnarajapura 10
HAL Airport Rd, Independent
6 30-40 Oracle Domlur I Stage house 17
Borewell road, Apartment
7 20-30 Mu Sigma Whitefield 4
Borewell road, Apartment
8 20-30 Mu Sigma Whitefield 4
9 20-30 Tesco Kundalahalli PG 6
BTM 2nd Stage, PG
10 20-30 Tesco Kuvempu Nagar 20
11 20-30 Tesco Marathalli PG 11
Source: Primary Data

From Table 3, we see that 6 out of 11 respondents live 10 km or more from their place
of work. The shortest distance is 4 kms, and these respondents live in Whitefield.

The following map indicates the places of work and residence of the respondents
 11

Map 5: Place of work and Residence

Table 4: Age of employees and distance from place of work

Age group Avg. distance from work (in km)

Above 40 8.17
30-40 12.3
20-30 9
Source: Author calculation

Table 4 examines the relation between the age group of employees and the distance
from work.

While 3 out of 5 respondents in the age group 20-30 live in paying guest
accommodations in the nearby areas of Whitefield and Kundalahalli, the respondent
who lives furthest away (in BTM) states the poor quality of PGs in Kundalahalli and
inconvenience due to lack of cabs at night, etc are reasons for his choice of residence.

It should also be noted that the 20-30 year old respondents who live the closest to ITPL
at Whitefield and Kundalahalli come from other states and are new to Bangalore. The
respondent living at BTM on the other hand has been living in Bangalore for a few years.
 12

Discussion and Conclusion

The growth and impact of select five IT parks in the city of Bangalore in the last two
decades have led to measurable effects on the city that surround them. They have
increased the land value in the surrounding area and have contributed to the
development of related industries as well as housing complexes close to them. This last
point of encouraging housing spread around has been important in answering why the
IT park model that claims self sustainability is true only up to a point.

The findings from this study on ITPL suggest that the IT park has spill over effects on
the immediate space surrounding it. The walk-to-work idea is not functioning among
various age groups for various reasons. For the young age group band, their migrant
status and expense of residence play a role in selection of residence type. In the older
age group band, the needs of the other members of the family, statusand affordability
rather than proximity to work play a role in the selection of type of residence. In both
cases, the IT Park is found to be in a balanced equilibrium with the space surrounding it.

The place of residence and the employment status reveals that choice and nature of the
place of residence is related to a number of variables like age group, marital status,
migrant status, to name a few. This choice in turn is shaped by the growth around the IT
parks and not merely within it. Even when the employee of the IT Park has a walk to
work system, it often affects the other members of the family including other working
members and school going children. This is consistent with the observation from the
literature review that suggests that EIPs are rarely isolated units and usually thrive on
the open trade of material, human and energy exchanges with the city space.
 13

Appendix I

Questionnaire for Survey

Personal Information

1. Name of the Respondent:

2. Age :

3. Gender :

4. Company that you work for:

5. Number of members in family:

6. Are there any other working member in the family? (If yes, then go to 7)

7. Whether the other working member travels more than 5 km to the work place?

Information related to Residence

8. Place of residence :

9. Type of Residence :

10. Distance from work place:

11. Reason for choosing the area of residence:

 14

References

Babbage, Charles. 1835 [1832]. On the Economy of Machinery andManufactures, 4th ed.
enlarged. London: Charles Knight.Reprinted by Augustus M. Kelley Publishers, 1986.

Chevalier, Raymond. 1993. Science and Technology in Rome. Paris: Presses

Universitaires de France.

Coˆte´, Raymond P. and E. Cohen-Rosenthal (1998). ‘Designing eco-industrial parks: a

synthesis of some experiences’, Journal of Cleaner Production(6) , pp. 181–188.

De Silguy, Catherine. 1989. The Saga of Trash From the Middle Ages to
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Haig, Robert M. 1926. Toward an Understanding of the Metropolis. 1. Some Speculation

Regarding the Economic Basis of Urban Concentration. Quarterly Journal of Economics
40(1): 179–208.

Mellaart, James. 1967. Çatal Hüyük. A Neolithic Town in Anatolia. New York: McGraw-
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Pellenbarg, P.H., 2002. ‘Sustainable business sites in the Netherlands: a survey of

policies and experiences’. Journal of Environmental Planning and Management, 45 (1),
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Simmonds, Peter Lund. 1862. Waste Products and Undeveloped Substances: Or, Hints
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Sinha, Abu Hasnat Md. Maqsood. 1993. The Formal and Informal SectorLinkages in
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Spooner, Henry J. 1918. Wealth from Waste. London: G. Routledge.Reprinted by Hive

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Tudor, Terry, Emma Adam and Margaret Bates (2007). Drivers and Limitations for the
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Economics, February, pp.199-207
 15

UNEP (United Nations Environmental Programme), 2000. Global Environmental

Outlook2000. Earthscan, London.

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Southern India,“. Innovation, Learning, and Technological Dynamism of Developing
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