Twin Millennium Towers to be denotified soon

VISAKHAPATNAM: Twin Millennium Towers on IT Hill No 3 at Rushikonda, which are most likely to house Secretariat and government HoD offices, may be denotified in the event the executive capital starts functioning from Visakhapatnam.

According to official sources, the process for denotification will take a minimum of three months. The State government, stakeholder of the land, has to move an application to the Union Commerce Ministry seeking denotification from SEZ purview.

Currently, only Conduent, a New Jersey-based technology-led business process services company, is functioning from Millennium Tower A. The company has 1,600 employees. Besides Conduent, there are some big companies such as Cyent and IBM apart from eight other firms on IT Hill No 3 at Rushikonda. There are 150 IT companies in the city, employing nearly 25,000 techies.

“The SEZ is meant for economic activity to promote employment and export business. For using it other than these activities, the SEZ has to be denotified,” IT Association of Rushikonda vice-president O Naresh Kumar said. IT Hill Nos 1 and 2 were denotified some time ago following a representation made by the IT firms, he said.Conduent, which started operations in 2018 in the city, shifted to Millennium Tower last year. Conduent has sought more space for expansion of its services and its application is pending with the State government. However, speculations are rife that the US firm may be asked to vacate Millennium Tower.

IT Association of Andhra Pradesh (ITAAP) president RL Narayana said there was not an iota of truth in the reports that software companies have been asked to vacate Millennium Tower and Innovation Valley. He said even IT Minister M Goutham Reddy had also clarified on this. A company official refused to comment on this, but added that they have not received any notice from the government till now.

IT Hill No 3 was declared IT Special Economic Zone (SEZ) almost a decade ago to promote employment and exports to earn foreign exchange. “It was declared as an ITSEZ when Rajasekhar Reddy was the chief minister of the combined Andhra Pradesh to give a big push IT  companies in Visakhapatnam,” IT Association of Rushikonda vice-president O Naresh Kumar said.