The land earmarked for Signature Tower at Rushikonda in the Madhurawada IT Special Economic Zone will be allotted to big ticket projects with an eye on providing jobs to locals.
The government is now in an advanced stage of talks with people in charge of such projects – some of them based in the United States. The issue may also figure during the trip of Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu to America.
After shelving the iconic Signature Tower project—mooted on a much higher scale than the Cyber Towers of Madhapur in Hyderabad—due to poor response from prospective developers, the government decided to replace it with a cluster of buildings by IT companies.
“Now it is taking a final shape. The MoU will be signed in a month or so. The criterion for land allotment is employment potential,” Special Chief Secretary and IT Advisor to Chief Minister J.A. Chowdary told The Hindu.
The land for construction of Signature Tower has been “resumed” from an IT company on Hill No. 3 of Rushikonda for not fulfilling the allotment norms. Of the 21.6 acres, expression of interest has been sought for development of Signature Tower in two phases in an extent of 17.98 acres. Even though the government engaged American real estate firm Jones Long LaSalle (JLL) to conceptualise the model and select a developer under DBFOT basis, several attempts by the APIIC to finalise the deal failed apparently due to insistence on paying an exorbitant share towards royalty and investment of nearly ₹500 crore on the two-phase project with a built-up area of 10 lakh sq.ft. with associated facilities.
HRD Minister Ganta Srinivasa Rao has also announced a proposal to relocate the Signature Tower project on the Beach Road by dismantling some of the old quarters of Andhra University. It was not pursued due to opposition.
“A cluster of buildings instead of a super-structure is good to promote investments in the city,” IT Association of Andhra Pradesh (ITAAP) president Ravi Eswarapu has said.
IT turnover
The city has an IT turnover of ₹2,000 crore – the highest in A.P., which the ITAAP hopes to enhance to ₹10,000 crore by creating ready-made infrastructure to plug and play players, developing social infrastructure and giving priority to encourage SME investors for Greenfield and Brownfield projects.
