Wipro chairman Azim Premji has come up with a plan to develop a special economic zone (SEZ) on 3.1 acres at Visakhapatnam to construct five lakh sq ft space and provide employment to 7,000 people over the next five years when he met Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu here on Sunday. He also had a meeting with Telangana Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao separately.
In 2004-05, the company was allotted 7.14 acres at Visakhapatnam at Rs.80 lakh per acre on an outright sale basis. Subsequently, it constructed 2 lakh sq ft on four acres and employed 650 professionals.
Mr. Premji requested Mr. Naidu to issue a no-objection certificate to develop the balance SEZ on 3.1 acres at Visakhapatnam.
The company has presence in Hyderabad and Visakhapatnam and the export turnover at Hyderabad is Rs. 3,500 crore with an employee base of over 10,000. Mr. Naidu agreed to Mr. Premji’s request as the presence of Wipro with significant operations and enhanced number of IT employees would give a fillip to the IT sector and attract more companies to set up their operations in Visakhapatnam, Andhra Pradesh IT Minister Palle Raghunatha Reddy told reporters later.
Mr. Naidu requested Mr. Premji to expand their operations to other locations such as Tirupati, Vijayawada and Kakinada.
