An iconic IT tower with world-class infrastructure will come up at the Visakhapatnam Special Economic Zone, Duvvada. Sanctioned by the Government of India, the Ministry of Commerce will spend Rs. 40 crore on construction of the ground plus five-floor Level 4 building with a built-up area of one lakh square feet.
“It will be an imposing building having a mesmerising effect on all those entering the city by train from the Duvvada railway station. Central Public Works Department will be asked to construct the building in a time-bound manner with aesthetic landscaping and elevation,” VSEZ Development Commissioner S. Kishore told The Hindu.
The highlight of the super-structure will be seismic activity proof and guaranteed supply of power 24x7. “We want it for use as a disaster recovery point/data recovery centre for big players in the event of an exigency at their campuses located at various places in the country or anywhere in the world,” says Mr. Kishore.
Two to three floors will be exclusively available for log on and log out purpose so as to use the facility as a bank locker system. There will be an advanced security system so that hackers and others cannot gain access to the data stored in the centre. Cubicle mode office space will be available, from where five to 10 persons can work anytime. Data can be recovered online or offline.
Investment centre
The facility is expected to give a big boost to the brand name of Vizag as a destination for investment.
Visakhapatnam is presently having an annual exports turnover of Rs.1300 crore from the IT business, mostly through big players like HSBC, Tech Mahindra, IBM and Wipro. The industry hopes that with another IT tower getting ready at Rushikonda, being built by APIIC, the turnover from the city can be raised to Rs.5,000 crore in next three years or so.
The proposals to set up IT Investment Centre and Electronic Hardware Manufacturing Cluster in the city are at nascent stage. Once they become a reality, the city will witness a quantum jump in volumes of business in the field of IT and IT-enable services.
“Visakhapatnam as an ideal IT hub is under-explored. The government should give us permission to allot the unused space at our units at Rushikonda IT SEZ to software firms from other places,” says Rushikonda IT Park Association president P. Vishnu Kumar Raju.
