Integrated IT Park & data centre to be established in Vizag: AP CM YS Jagan

The proposal of establishing an integrated IT Park and data centre in Vizag has taken a leap forward with the Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister, YS Jagan Mohan Reddy, giving his nod to the project, on Friday. A review meeting on the IT – Electronic Policy was held at his camp office, during which the AP Chief Minister said that every village in the state should be equipped with internet connectivity, an e-library, and a dedicated optic network to facilitate the public to work from home.

Addressing the review meeting, Mr Reddy said that an Integrated IT Park will be established in Vizag with a high-end skill university, state data centre, incubation centre, labs, and IT towers. The Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister also directed the officials to compute the estimates for setting up an Emerging Technologies University in Vizag, which offers courses including Robotics, Artificial Intelligence, Cloud Computing, Blockchain Technologies, Data Analytics Sciences, Advanced Electronics, and IT applications in education, health, agriculture, and water resources.

Stating that the concept of work from home is gaining acceptance in the post-COVID-19 scenario, Mr Reddy said that the state government is committed to enabling the requisite facilities. The Chief Minister has also instructed officials to develop IT concept cities over at least two thousand acres in three places near Vizag, Tirupati, and a location nearer to Bangalore but within AP limits.

Earlier in November, the Andhra Pradesh state government had announced special incentives to Adani Enterprises Limited (AEL) for setting up a data centre park, IT business park, skill university, and recreation centre at Madhurawada in Vizag. In line with the recommendations of the Andhra Pradesh State Investment Promotion Board, a Government Order (GO) was issued to extend certain incentives to the company.

Under the AI Cloud Hub Policy 2018-20, the AP state government decided to extend the timeline for implementing the Adani Enterprises data centre project in Vizag. Furthermore, it was noted that the project operations must commence within 3 years and all of its phases must be completed within 7 years, from the date of handing over of the land.