Bengaluru proximity adds investor appeal to Anantapur IT city plan

Officials are confident that the proposed IT city will yield the desired results.

VIJAYAWADA:  To realise its vision of creating one lakh jobs in the IT sector in Andhra Pradesh by 2019, the government is planning to promote the proposed IT city in Anantapur district among potential investors as ‘Bengaluru Plus’, taking advantage of its proximity to India’s Silicon Valley. 

The IT Department is preparing a proposal highlighting the fact that the capital city of Karnataka has reached a point of saturation in terms of expansion and Anantapur can reap benefits from this limitation. 
Officials said the district’s proximity to Bengaluru airport was one of the key factors that convinced the State government of the project’s viability. “The plan is still in an early stage. We have asked the district administration of Anantapur to identify land. Based on the availability of land parcel, we will prepare our proposals. The plan is to start the development of the proposed IT city at the earliest,” IT principal secretary K Vijayanand told TNIE. 

Officials are confident that the proposed IT city will yield the desired results as the State government’s previous attempt to develop an economic zone with a similar concept was successful. “Sri City, which has now become an electronics and communications manufacturing hub, is nothing but a project developed under ‘Chennai Plus’ concept. As it is only 50 km from Chennai, investors saw potential there,” Vijayanand explained, throwing light on the potential of the IT city in Anantapur. 

Highly placed sources said about 4,000 to 5,000 acres of land is being identified for the purpose. “The district administration has preliminarily identified close to 3,000 acres. Efforts are on to identify the others. Once the identification is done, a team will visit to examine if the location is nearer to highway, if it has necessary resources in vicinity and other facilities,” another official explained. “We have previously developed Sri City on close to 3,000 acres of land as it was close to Chennai... In fact, 3-4 IT firms are also establishing their facilities there,” the official observed.

The IT Department’s officials also plans to visit Bengaluru and other cities to attract investors, sources said and added that a few firms had already expressed interest to set up shop in the proposed IT city, provided the State government extends attractive incentives. “We will interact with more players and formulate a policy, if necessary, or make amendments to the existing one, so that it will take care of the needs of investors,” the official said.

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