A skyscraper may come up in the heart of the city to house first of its kind domain-specific incubation and innovation centre on marine, power and petroleum to encourage small and medium IT players and startups.
Though the proposal was mooted long ago the skyscraper idea is being considered now to have more space for allocation, sources told The Hindu .
The project will be joint venture of Visakhapatnam Urban Development Authority and Software Technology Parks of India (Ministry of Information Technology).
STPI has at its disposal an unspent amount of Rs.16 crore for setting up an incubation tower. The land admeasuring 1.2 acres at Siripuram between VUDA office and HSBC has been identified for the project. VUDA in-principle has agreed to put the land as its equity.
Initially, it was proposed to develop 10 to 12 floor tower with 1.25 lakh square ft. “We are now working out the nitty-gritty. If everything works out well, we will have a huge tower in the heart of the city to provide more space to the IT entrepreneurs and startups,” STPI-Vizag Joint Director M.P. Dubey told The Hindu on Tuesday.
There is not much IT penetration into marine sector.
Emerging key area
It is emerging as key area with huge scope for IT applications in underwater pipelines, unmanned vehicles, underwater cables and warfare. For load transfer and power plant management, IT also has wide applicability.
The State government is trying to rope in big ticket projects. Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu has already wrote letters to leading players to set up campuses in Visakhapatnam, the largest city in AP, which will be promoted as a mega IT hub. Wipro and Tech Mahindra, which have centres in the city, are on expansion mode.
A senior official of IT Department said CapGemini has evinced interest to invest in the city. The city’s turnover from IT is estimated at around Rs.1800 crore to Rs.2,000 crore during 2014-15.
If everything works out well, we will have a huge tower in the heart of the city to provide more space to the IT entrepreneurs and startups.
M.P. Dubey
STPI-Vizag Joint Director
Though the proposal was mooted long ago, the skyscraper idea is being considered now to have more space for allocation