Infotech opens centre at Kakinada

Infotech Enterprises Ltd (IEL), a leading global engineering design services, geospatial information services and IT service provider, on Saturday launched its operations in Kakinada with a development centre created by the Software Technology Parks of India (STPI). The centre was inaugurated by chief minister YS Rajasekhara Reddy.

Kakinada is the first centre of Infotech in Andhra Pradesh outside Hyderabad.

While the STPI has developed the facility with infrastructure and network services ready to plug-and-play, IEL has installed hardware and software and created a capacity of 60 workstations.

To begin with, Infotech will employ over 60 associates from the region and will scale this up to 120 by the end of March 2007. It would initially be an incubation centre, which the company intends to later develop into a full-fledged facility.

"Kakinada is an ideal tier II location for IT companies for it has wealth of engineering talent. It is also well-connected to Hyderabad. Our entry into Kakinada marks the beginning of the region developing into a preferred IT destination,'' said IEL CMD BVR Mohan Reddy.

The company currently has 120 professional for this centre and is planning to raise it to 500 by the end of the year. Mohan Reddy said IEL would launch its operations in Visakhapatnam too in future.

Meanwhile, the chief minister said the state would extend all facilities and concessions to encourage IT companies to establish their units in 10 more tier II locations like Kakinada this year.

"Another 60 acres of land will be given to STPI Kakinada to establish permanent structures as special economic zones (SEZs). Besides, another 11 colleges will be added to the Jawahar Knowledge Centres (JKCs) this year to the existing eight in the coastal districts," he said.