Land delay holds up IT centre

By SNV Sudhir

Visakhapatnam, Jan 16, 2014: While the state government’s IT incubation centre, which is under construction at Rushikonda is being delayed, the proposal to develop another incubation centre by Union government’s department of IT and communications' Software Technology Parks of India (STPI), has remained a non- starter.

It has been more than two years that the Centre has the administrative nod, released funds, but the state government has failed to allot land for the proposed IT Incubation and Innovation centre in the city with plug and play facilities.

Though the facility was initially planned at the APIIC’s IT SEZ in Gambheeram, the location was dropped as it was far away from the city.

Later, Vuda allotted a site which was leased to a private party earlier near its office. However, the allotment ran into rough weather, as the site lease owner approached a court questioning the cancellation of lease.

“It is unfortunate that the state government could not allot a piece of land in the city for the IT incubation centre which can actually attract lot of small, medium IT companies to city. These companies generate lot of employment opportunities to locals. There is also no promotion policy in place. The concentration in and around Hyderabad is still on. The proposal to set up incubation centre by STPI has been pending for some years,” said Rushikonda IT Park Association vice- president, O. Naresh Kumar.

Another site that was identified by Vuda was also leased to another private firm to develop an IT tower under Public-Private Partnership mode. But the allottee has delayed to launch works.
The incubation centre under construction at Rushikonda has not seen much progress yet either.
The construction of the centre was supposed to be finished by the end of 2013, but only 40 per cent was completed.

IT minister Ponnala Lakshmaiah had laid the foundation stone for the incubation centre in January last year.

STPI currently operates an incubation facility at Duvvada near the Visakhapatnam Special Economic Zone.

The Duvvada facility has 150 seats.

“We are in touch with the Vuda and the talks regarding incubation centre proposal are in final stage. Very soon the works will begin. We are planning a plug and play facility in an area of one lakh square feet,” said an STPI senior official.