GVL seeks Railway Minister's support to develop Vizag as IT hub

Visakhapatnam: Rajya Sabha member GVL Narasimha Rao met Union Minister for Railways, Electronics and Information Technology Ashwini Vaishnaw in New Delhi and sought support for developing Visakhapatnam as a major IT hub in the country. The MP sought Central Government's active financial, institutional and logistics support in realising the complete IT potential of Visakhapatnam.

He sought the support and cooperation in sanctioning and fast-tracking the approvals and implementation of various IT projects in Visakhapatnam which would create necessary eco-system and a conducive environment for the fast growth of the IT sector in Visakhapatnam. Approval and implementation of coveted projects were sought and they include expansion of the STPI, Visakhapatnam Centre operations with state-of-the-art infrastructure to offer incubation services for providing an improved ecosystem for Start-ups as Visakhapatnam, early execution of a Centre of Excellence (CoE) in RINL to act as an incubation centre to build innovative products and solutions for public sector and other manufacturing companies in the country and region and establishment of a Fabrication Laboratory (Fablab) in Visakhapatnam, among others.

Speaking after the meeting, MP GVL mentioned that Andhra Pradesh has a massive potential to contribute to Information technology development in the country. Visakhapatnam with top notch institutions and cosmopolitan culture can be the driver of this IT growth in Andhra Pradesh. Support from the Union Government and establishment of top notch Central IT institutions will create the necessary ecosystem to exponentially grow the IT sector in Visakhapatnam, he opined. Later, the MP informed that the Union Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw responded very favourably and offered full support and cooperation for developing Vizag as a major IT destination.