IT incubation centres to come up in tier II cities

Move part of govt's strategy to build state IT economy

The Andhra Pradesh information technology & communications department (IT&C) today announced that IT incubation centres would be developed jointly by the government and STPI in all the four tier II cities of Tirupati, Vijayawada, Visakhapatnam and Warangal to enable entrepreneurs and IT companies to quickstart their operations.

The development of tier II cities is part of the government's strategy to rapidly build IT economy of the state.

The government has appointed four nodal officers for the identified tier II cities to interact with industry and the administration for the growth of IT operations in these new areas.

According to K Ratna Prabha, secretary, IT&C department, these officers would be the single point of contact to the industry.

The officers are: Praveen Kumar (Visakhapatnam and Kakinada), Gopi Krishna (Tirupati), Raghuveer (Warangal) and T V Parthasaradhi (Vijayawada).

Besides setting up incubation facilities, steps would also be initiated to build IT towers at Visakhapatnam and Tirupati and private land owners would be incentivised to develop IT parks in these places by offering exemption from urban land ceiling, and reimbursement of stamp duty among others, she said.

The government has already announced cash subsidy of Rs 50 lakh to the first five companies employing 250 people in IT or 500 people in ITeS. The first IT company, IBSS, has agreed to start operations in Warangal by employing over 500 staff, Ratna Prabha said.

"Andhra Pradesh aims to achieve 40 per cent year-on-year growth in IT/ITeS exports and the exports are expected to cross Rs 11,500 crore with an additional employment of 30,000 in 2006," she noted, adding that there would be a requirement of 30 million square feet of built-up space for the IT industry by the year 2009 in the state.

The new initiatives in this direction include creation of product-specific software SEZ, development of multi-tenanted IT facilities similar to Hitec City, Mindspace.

The government, however, has decided that land allotments at Hyderabad will be given only to mega IT companies, according to a press release.