Nehru Place, the Asia's No 1 Computer Dealers market, in New Delhi will soon be connected through a private network, forming an internet community of over 800 dealers in the area.

Softalk Technologies and R. N. Lakhotia group have joined together to form a joint venture company Softalk Lakhotia Infocom Ltd. (SLIL) for creating an IT hub at Nehru Place, with an annual IT business of Rs. 2,500 crore, Nehru Place IT hub.Com (www.nehruplaceithub.com) will meet the growing needs of vendors in northern India.

The hub will also be connected to the outside world through internet via radio link.

The hub is slated for formal inauguration on August 14. The countrywide connectivity to potential IT markets would be provided through V-sSat with-in a year.

All the 800 dealers spread over one kilometer area will be connected on in house dedicated lines with a rare combination of B2B and B2C with protected passwords along with the combination of clicks and bricks which is being incorporated in the e-commerce hub for the competitive advantage for business of all sizes.

The Nehru Place IT hub will provide a neutral trading platform to its members with no brokerage or commission. There will be one-to-one deals, without any intervention by this hub.

Each dealer will be provided a virtual shop in the cyber space similar to their shops in Nehru Place. The virtual shops will contain details like company name, a brief profile of th4e company telephone and fax numbers names of contact persons and all the relevant information about products like pricing and technical specifications.

This cyber market would make it easier for a buyer to get background information about a product and to compare prices easily. The other feature of the hub include instant messages to trading community, broadcast of special offers, exclusive e-mail facility, stock clearance through auction facility, display of launch of new products, free net access without telephone expenses, current updated prices of distributors and dealers.

SLIL,s another director Subhash Lakhotia said that Softalk Technologies and Lakhotia group hold 75 percent and 25 percent equity stake respectively in the joint venture.

Future plans of the company include setting up of an India IT hub.com where all the bit IT cities and market would be available for virtual sale, purchase, bargaining, auction and for other trade related information and setting up of touch screen kiosks at Capital's railway stations and interstate bus terminus.

India IT hub.com would enable the international IT community also to know about the requirements of each other.

The initial investment on the hub is estimated at about Rs. 1 crore. Which will be met through internal accounts with authorized capital of Rs. 60 lakh and the company hopes to reach the break-even stage within the current financial year itself. The requirement of funds in the second phase of investment would be met through venture capitals.