STPI Vijayawada sees 20 firms setting up shop

The Vijayawada unit of Software Technology Parks of India (STPI), a central government organisation, has so far registered about 20 software companies in the city, signalling an increase in the number of companies that were setting up shop in the city.

STPI is also gearing up to construct an incubation facility building in the city to accommodate software development companies, medical transcription firms, BPO units and call centres.

Speaking to Business Standard, N S Siddaiah, the STPI officer incharge, said that 10 of the customer firms were actively functioning and five of them obtained STPI bandwidth facilities.

The STPI erected an international satellite gateway at a cost of Rs 3 crore.

"It is offering services such as internet protocol (IP), international private leased circle (IPLC) which provides link between inter offices of a firm, file transfer protocol (FTP), soft conference (video conference), softnet (softpoint and softlink), Web hosting with access to and from anywhere in the world, and registration of firms. It also provides built-in space and bandwidth facilities, clears import of infrastructure material, and issues non-pollution certificates to industrialists," he said.

He said that the STPI staff were striving to woo customers, offering them a number of benefits. Whatever facilities were available at the Hyderabad Hi-Tech City, were also available in the city STPI centre.

Prominent STPI customers, he said, included Efftronics Systems Private Limited, Cablenet Communications, Vijayawada Municipal Corporation, R K Masters, Net.Com Services (Private) Limited, Regional Research Institute (Ayurveda) and Digil.inx (Chirala).

"Cablenet Communications, with STPI's help, is providing good quality internet to browsing centres, households and small offices at low rates. Some students are executing their project works from their houses," Siddaiah said.

Of the 1,400 computer companies operating in Hyderabad, 800 firms belonged to entrepreneurs of coastal districts.

"The city lacks modern airport and trained manpower. But the city has great future. Slowly, software experts were recognising the crucial role of STPI in their field. The 10 engineering colleges in the district are expected to churn out thousands of software engineers every year in the near future. The STPI is determined to woo a score of them into software entrepreneurship," he said.

"The proposal to construct a mini-hi-tech city is also under process. With restoration of flights to and from the city, the NRI entrepreneurs might come forward to utilise STPI services. A training facility would be established soon in the areas of hardware, software, network administration, system administration and database administration. The centre is also recommending trained students for jobs in local software companies," he said.

He said that the STPI was backed by the Krishna Industrial and Agricultural Exhibition Society and the state government. The latter released Rs 1 crore and helped in the setting up of the STPI centre on a two-acre site.