Chennai: The Tamil Nadu government is keen on setting up a joint task force on IT, comprising of representatives of the government and the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) to promote Tamil Nadu as an investment destination.

"The task force may also consider branding of the IT sector in Tamil Nadu in view of professional skills and aptitude of talent pool available here," said Dayanidhi Maran, union minister of Communications & Information Technology.

Addressing the captains of the industry at the National Council Meeting of the CII, Maran said that the state government is committed towards upgrading the infrastructure.

He said that though growth of the industry and services has largely been confined to the bigger cities, the government is looking at tier II and III cities to sustain the competitive advantage.

He also said the state government has a comprehensive plan to decongest the western corridor of Chennai through a set of projects being executed by National Highways Authority of India. The Government will create new mega cities to take off the stress from the existing cities. He said that broadband connectivity is going to be made available in about 400 towns in the state by the end of 2006.

The minister also said that there is a need to create an international institute to hone the IT edge on the lines of Indian Institute of Information Technology (IIIT) in Tamil Nadu and to set up a Tamil Nadu IT Fund, which will catalyse the setting up of start-up projects for the IT industry.

Earlier R Seshasayee, president, CII, said that CII is working closely with the central and state governments to enable the manufacturing sector to achieve 10 per cent growth. He also said that CII-TVS Centre of Responsive Corporate Citizenship will be set up in Chennai at the cost of Rs6 crore in the next two years.