With the declaration by the government to make Visaskhapatnam IT capital of Navya Andhra Pradesh not making any progress, several IT entrepreneurs from the city expressed their anguish during their meeting with IT Minister Palle Raghunatha Reddy on Saturday evening.
They told him candidly that though the IT policy unveiled by the government two years ago was quite laudable, nothing had materialised on the ground. Neither any big player was roped in nor any IT Park like Raheja’s Mindspace in Hyderabad had been developed to provide the right ecosystem to woo investors.
The Minister, while promising to ensure ease of doing business, admitted that frequent change in secretaries in the department had affected wooing investors.
Sources told The Hindu that the entrepreneurs wanted clear earmarking of land for outright sale as well as lease to NRIs and others. They sought walk to work and pedal down to work facilities. Low-cost housing near IT area was one of their main demands. Besides IT Park they also pitched for an indoor stadium for recreation of IT employees.
Signature Park announced by Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu on September 29, 2014 at the site acquired from Kennexa for its failure to fulfil land allotment norms at Rushikonda has not found any takers for construction due to conditions over land lease and revenue-sharing pattern.
Incubation tower
The incubation tower proposed by Software Technology Parks of India and VUDA has not progressed despite availability of funds. After a long delay, construction of Millennium Tower with three lakh sft has taken off, which the Minister said would be made operational by March, 2017.
The failure of Sunrise Startup Village was also brought to the notice to the Minister. There is none available from the department to talk to investors coming from abroad in the city, they lamented.
The investors, who have put up IT units at SEZ, Rushikonda, and others told Mr. Reddy that the incentives promised in the IT Policy like PF and power subsidy, are not being released. One entrepreneur said his claims were pending for past 10 years.
Those who interacted with the Minister included IT Association of AP president Ravi Eswarapu, CII-AP Chairman G.S. Shiv Kumar and Rushikonda IT Association vice-president O. Naresh Kumar.
For Millennium Tower coming up near Startup Village, Rs.120 crore sanctioned by IT and Communication Department was lying idle for a long time. Recently the amount was transferred to APIIC. The entrepreneurs said instead of planning construction of Tower A and B in phases as part of Millennium Tower, it should be done simultaneously.
