The Hindu Business Line : AP Cabinet clears 30-acre site for IT park in Vijayawada

THE Andhra Pradesh Government has cleared a proposal to allot 30 acres of land at Gangavaram near Vijayawada for an IT park that will create a technology township-cum-facility to incubate start-ups.

Addressing a press conference here today after the Cabinet meeting, the State Information Minister, Mohd. Ali Shabbir, said the 30-acre site would be allotted from the surplus land of AP Prisons to the Department of Information Communication Technology with a transfer fee of Rs 2.5 crore.

The ICT Department would take up work on the IT park that will focus on attracting companies to locate centres in Tier II cities such as Vijayawada, Vizag, Warangal, among others. The proposed IT township will have office space for small and medium enterprises and local IT companies, and an incubation centre for first generation technocrat entrepreneurs, restaurants, food courts, shopping malls and related infrastructure.

Alongside this, it is also proposed to locate another incubation centre by the State in association with the Software Technology Parks of India (STPI).

Given the recent enactment that paves the way for creation of special economic zones (SEZs), the Government expects to develop this as a special zone for IT companies that can take advantage of certain tax exemptions such as excise duty on capital goods, raw materials, reimbursement of Central Sales Tax paid on domestic purchases among others. This fits well into the ICT policy 2005-2010 that provides certain incentives including rebate on power tariff and three shift operations. The Vijayawada project seeks to develop 12,00,000 sq.ft that could potentially have capacity to host about 40,000 employees, when completed.

Referring to other related decisions, the Minister said the Government has allotted about 18 acres for the Animal Husbandry department at Visakhapatnam for employees cooperative society.

The Cabinet decided to establish 22 Fire Outposts Stations across the State.

During the Cabinet meeting, the Chief Minister, Dr Y.S. Rajashekhara Reddy, highlighted the interest evinced by chief ministers from other States with regard to the free power policy being pursued in the State. They were keen to learn how this was being implemented while several other States such as Punjab trying this out and failing, Mr Shabbir Ali said.