Visakhapatnam, the largest city of Andhra Pradesh on the state's east coast, is all set to be developed into an "IT Capital" of the state. The announcement was made by Minister for Information Technology Palle Raghunadha Reddy on Tuesday, 15 July.
The city has reportedly been chosen for the purpose due to its immense potential. Besides Visakhapatnam, cities of Vijayawada, Tirupati, Kakinada and Anantapur will also be developed into IT hubs, Reddy added.
Visakhapatnam, commonly known as Vizag is home to multinational companies like HSBC and hosts other IT and IT-enabled companies with vast number of educated professionals. The city is also home to universities like Andhra University and also boasts of a few media houses.
The Andhra Pradesh government is likely to announce its IT Policy within 10 days, and a single window clearance for investments from companies would be set up as part of the IT Policy.
The Minister said that three major IT companies are seeking the government's permission to acquire land in Vizag.
On the same day, Reddy also visited the special economic zone (SEZ) in Madhurawada and interacted with professionals and technocrats who have set up units there. Vizag, India's naval base, is a cosmopolitan city with migrated population from states like Odisha West Bengal and other states.
Meanwhile, Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu on his Twitter account stated that as part of the State government's commitment to transform Vizag into a major IT hub, lands have been allocated to three major companies.
SEZ for Wipro, 10 acres for Tech Mahindra & 13 acres for Society for Applied Microwave Electronics Engineering and Research. Vizag Emerging.
— N Chandrababu Naidu (@ncbn) July 15, 2014
These three companies are expected to provide direct employment to 10,000 people and indirect employment to another 13,000 people.
Currently, Sree City, spread over two districts in Chittoor and Nellore, is a major SEZ of Andhra Pradesh. Naidu is also said to be very keen to develop Anantapur and Tirupati in Rayalaseema and Vijayawada and Kakinada on the AP coast into IT destinations.
