The Andhra Pradesh Industrial Infrastructure Corporation (APIIC) plans to construct IT incubation towers here and in other towns of the State such as Kakinada, Tirupati and Warangal to provide plug-and-play facilities for small entrepreneurs in these towns and to promote IT, according to sources.
It has been a long-pending demand to construct these IT towers in the towns, as IT has remained confined largely to Hyderabad, even though Visakhapatnam has made a little headway during the past decade or so.
The APIIC is planning to construct an IT tower at Gambheeram village in Visakhapatnam district, where an IT special economic zone is coming up, and also another one at Madhurawada near Visakhapatnam.
At a recent review meeting in Hyderabad on the issue, State Investment Minister G. Srinivasa Rao is reported to have suggested that it would be preferable to have one IT tower at Madhurawada and the second one within city limits, and not at Gambheeram village, as the village is far away.
The minister has suggested to the APIIC to take back one acre of undeveloped land lying with Wipro in the heart of the city at the TB hospital junction and use it for IT tower construction.
Alternatively, the APIIC can also seek one acre near the Waltair Club from the Visakhapatnam Urban Development Authority (VUDA) or get an acre from the district administration for the purpose. He prefers to have an IT incubation tower in the city for the benefit of entrepreneurs.
The IT towers in Visakhapatnam will have office space of 50,000 Sft apiece and those in the smaller towns 10,000 Sft. The APIIC has identified consultants for these towers in each town. They may be constructed within nine months or one year, it is said.
The APIIC has been advised to use green building concepts in constructing these towers. The district collector of Karimnagar has agreed to provide land for construction of IT park and incubation tower and the proposal is under consideration.
It is also proposed to have three major electronic hardware manufacturing clusters in the State, one of them at Parawada in Visakhapatnam district. A site of 100 acres has been identified at Parawada for the purpose.
It is hoped these steps will spur small entrepreneurs to set up IT units in these towns and provide jobs to the youth.