Adani Group set to start work on data centre park

Visakhapatnam: AFTER facing teething problems, the work on the ambitious integrated data centre park, technology/business park and a recreation centre by the Adani Group is all set to start in Visakhapatnam. The State Investment Promotion Board had given its green signal for the project with an investment of Rs 14,634 crore to generate jobs for 25,000 in November last year. Following which, the government issued guidelines with a slew of incentives vide GO Ms. No. 3 in February 3, 2021. Land to an extent of 130 acres has been earmarked for the project in the 300-acre Knowledge Park proposed by AP Industrial Infrastructure Corporation (APIIC). The land located on Hill No. 4 of Madhurawada close to IT Special Economic Zone, Rushikonda and Sriram Panorama Hills, was in possession of the Tourism Department.

The government has allotted 82 acres for the data park including 20 MW solar power plant, 28 acres of IT/business park, 11 acres for skill university and nine acres for recreation centre. "The Adani Group has paid cost towards land at the rate of Rs.1 crore per acre. It will start work once we hand over land to them," C Ethiraja, Zonal Manager, APIIC, told Bizz Buzz. After getting all clearances, Adani Enterprises Ltd and Edge Connex, formed a joint venture Adani ConneX to achieve 1GW of data centre capacity in next 10 years. This includes the production from the Visakhapatnam project. It has been reported that the Adani Group has formed a special purpose vehicle Vizag Tech Park Ltd to implement its Visakhapatnam project.

There were clouds of uncertainty over the project after formation of the government by the YSR Congress Party as then Chief Minister N Chandrababu NaIdu had laid the foundation stone for the data park at Kapuluppada in the city just before the general elections in 2019.