T'gana govt's IMAGE Tower to be ready by early 2020

More than 200 companies would be able to operate from the exclusive facility (Tower) being developed by the Telangana government here to give a boost to the animation, gaming and visual effects sector, a senior official has said.

The work on building the IMAGE Tower (Innovation in Multimedia, Animation, Gaming and Entertainment) began last year and it is in good progress, Jayesh Ranjan, state principal Secretary (IT), told PTI.

"By the end of 2019 or the first quarter of 2020, we should expect it to be ready," he said.

The facility is being developed in the PPP mode at a cost of around rs 900 crore, he said.

"It's being done in a PPP mode. A company called Salarpuria is building it and are spending around Rs 900 crore in construction," he said.

More than 200 companies would be able to operate from the Tower, he said, adding studios, preview theatres and some others would be provided as common facilities.

He said government would fix the rate at which IMAGE companies will be given space. "The rest of the space they can take at commercial rates also," Ranjan said.

The facility is coming up at cyberabad area, the IT hub in the city. The government had earlier announced that the IMAGE Tower would be a 1.6 million square feet facility.

The state government had announced the IMAGE policy in 2016 to make Hyderabad the most favoured destination for investment in animation, visual effects, gaming and comics (AVGC) sector.