The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh News : SEZ paves the way for Kakinada to be IT hub

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Saturday, Sep 01, 2007
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Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh

SEZ paves the way for Kakinada to be IT hub

Correspondent

Indirect employment to 73,000 people likely

Kakinada: The port city of Kakinada is poised for becoming hub for IT activity, with the IT/ITES sector special economic zone getting cleared by the Board of Approvals, Department of Commerce, New Delhi. Union Minister of State for Defence M M Pallam Raju was instrumental in securing clearance for the project to make his dream vision of developing IT/ITES hubs in a tier-II location like Kakinada. The APIIC is the developer of the proposed SEZ in its own land at a cost of Rs.182.40 crores that is expected to generate direct employment for 5000 IT graduates and indirect employment to 7300 people. Kakinada, an identified tier-II location, has a state-of-the-art STPI incubation facility besides great potential with over a dozen engineering, MCA colleges functioning in both Godavari districts.

STPI excels

The STPI incubation centre, which commenced its operations during February, within a short span of six months has excelled in its operations.

Being the service provider, it is able to attract more than five companies to launch their operations.

One of the three major software companies, the INFOTECH is now going for expansion by recruitment of 50 more IT graduates .

The demand for jobs is so much that several young graduates have been coming to the STPI for the past two days awaiting their turn. `We are looking for more accommodation to cope with the demand for space from IT companies. On the lines of Coimbatore we are planning to hire the space going for a tieup with educational institutions.

We act as interface between IT companies and educational institutions,’ said Suresh Batha, Deputy Director, STPI. He claimed that Kakinada STPI was the best in providing Internet dedicated lines with capacity up to N x 64 KBPS and was the most sought after by software companies.

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