Rushikonda IT zone gets Industrial Area Local Authority status

The Andhra Pradesh government has accorded Industrial Area Local Authority (IALA) status to the Rushikonda IT special economic zone (SEZ), spread over 200 acre on the outskirts of Visakhapatnam.

The IALA status allows units to de-notify from the purview of the IT SEZ. The Andhra Pradesh Industrial Infrastructure Corporation (APIIC) will function as the IALA. It exercises certain statutory powers and functions such as assessment, levy and collection of taxes from the occupants in areas that fall in APIIC’s industrial estates.

“Currently, maintenance of roads, street lights, drainage and other amenities by the Greater Visakha Municipal Corporation is very poor in the IT SEZ area. With the new status, the IT units can now have a choice for good maintenance without depending on the local corporation,” Vishnu Kumar Raju, president of  the Rushikonda IT Park Units Association and member of the Legislative Assembly (Vizag north), told Business Standard.

At present, close to 20 IT units are operating out of the Rushikonda IT SEZ area, while about 35 units are expected to set up shop over the next two years. The state government recently allotted 10 acre to Tech Mahindra here. This decision (IALA status) will help attract new and major IT players to the Rushikonda IT SEZ area, he added.

APIIC will appoint one commissioner to run the IALA. A couple of local units operators, too, will have participation in the IALA.

The committee will collect taxes from the IT units, and about 65 per cent of this should be utilised towards the maintenance of the Rushikonda IT SEZ area, said Krishna Prasad, manager, APIIC.