Naidu’s grandiose plan: Brand Vizag needs to be created

By SNV Sudhir

Visakhapatnam, June 13, 2014:  AP Chief Minister, N Chandrababu Naidu, has grandiose plan for Vizag. Ever since he has sworn in as the new chief minister of AP he has time and again assured that Vizag, will be made an IT destination in the new state for which he has to really strive hard and begin right from the scratch.  

The ground seems to be not so conducive too. For instance forget about big players in the sector, no IT entrepreneur either medium or small has come forward to take plots at IT SEZ in Gambheeram which was developed by the APIIC, in an extent of 51.28 acres around 20kms away from the city.

All the 28 plots are still vacant since 5 years. Experts in IT field are of the opinion that a brand for Vizag on the lines of Hyderabad is needed to be created besides its promotion. Lack of proper social infrastructure, plug and play space like Cyber towers in Hyderabad and poor airport facilities are said to be bottlenecks in creating Brand Vizag as a next IT destination in the new state.

There are around 100 medium, small and big IT and ITES firms operating in Vizag employing around 17,000.  Most of the units functioning in Vizag, deal in end-to-end business integration, medical billing, financial information processing, ERP product, content management, networking, business, recruitment process outsourcing, and medical transcription.

While the IT turnover from the earlier entire Andhra Pradesh was Rs 64,354 crs with Rs 51,300 crs export and Rs 13,000 cr of domestic business, only Hyderabad’s contribution was 97 percent and the rest of the state is only 3 percent.

Of the total 13lakh employed in IT sector only 23,000 are from rest of Andhra Pradesh. Employment is less than 2percent in the new Andhra Pradesh when compared to Hyderabad. 

 As per 2013-14 estimates, while Vizag’s IT sector turnover is Rs 1,445 cr and employs around 17,000, Vijayawada’s turnover is a meager Rs 115 crores employing only 2900.  Kakinada  IT companies does Rs 61 crores and employs 1900.  Tirupati IT sector makes a turnover of Rs 7 cr.  

 “There should be brand for Vizag and it should be promoted well. Vizag already has location advantage. There needs to be at least 15 lakh sft plug play facility on the lines of cyber towers and Raheja IT towers of Hyderad,” said Rushikonda IT Park Association (RITPA), vice president, O Naresh Kumar.