With no space left for allotment to new investors, the State government is mulling development of an IT concept city, the first of its kind at Bhogapuram, about 45 km from here.
The proposal assumes significance in the wake of the government’s decision to set up Executive capital in Visakhapatnam. A Greenfield international airport is also coming up at Bhogapuram, which is located in Vizianagaram district.
The hint regarding this was dropped by Principal Secretary, IT, Kona Sasidhar, during a recent visit to the city wherein he held an interaction with the stakeholders. He told them that the government had plans to develop an IT concept city without elaborating about the project.
The future of IT city mooted during the erstwhile TDP government at Kapuluppada in an area of 400 acres, for which a layout has been prepared, hangs in balance with the capital talk.
There is buzz that some of the buildings required for the capital maybe built at Kapuluppada or Bheemunipatnam or Bhogapuram. This could be due to availability of large parcels of government land and close proximity to the proposed international airport.
IT Association of AP (ITAAP) and Rushikonda IT Park Association (RITPA) have welcomed the proposal to develop IT concept city for which they sought consultations with the stakeholders before taking a final decision.
‘Release incentives’
“We welcome any decision to promote IT,” RITPA vice-president O. Naresh Kumar said seeking timely release of incentives promised to the existing IT companies. “The GO Rt. No. 1 was issued on January 1, 2020 sanctioning ₹100 crore to release the incentives due to the IT players. We will be happy if the payment is done immediately to send the right signals to the investor community,” he told The Hindu.
The CEO of another company said the government should go for a futuristic township with individual plots plus towers for plug and play operators at the concept city to make Visakhapatnam a prominent hub for IT companies.
Visakhapatnam has a turnover of ₹2,000 crore from IT and IT enabled services, a lion’s share of which comes from Business Process Management (BPM) units.
The city is home to prominent firms including HSBC, Conduent, Wipro, Tech Mahindra, FedServ (wholly-owned subsidiary of Federal Bank), Fluentgrid, IBM, WNS, Patra India, Concentrix and Uber Centre of Excellence.
