Vizag set to become a key hub for digital transformation

Visakhapatnam: The city with many names like City of Destiny, Vizag and Port City is all set for big transformation in digital infrastructure with Meta engaging Sify Technologies as its partner to make its multi-billion undersea cable network land here and in Mumbai.

India's commercial capital and Andhra Pradesh's largest city are chosen by Meta, the owner of Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, as the landing sites under the project named Waterworth.

Designed at over 50,000 km, this is considered the world's longest subsea cable project connecting India with the United States, Brazil and South Africa with linkage to five continents. "Due to massive work involved, the project may take a decade for completion," a senior official of AP Government told Bizz Buzz. The project will give a big boost to position AP as a leader in AI and various new age technologies.

Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) is reportedly in talks with the State Government for establishing on a 1 gigawatt data centre in Visakhapatnam. This comes after Google subsidiary Raiden Infotech announced setting up a $10 billion data centre cluster at three locations in Visakhapatnam region.

The MoU is scheduled to be signed in the presence of Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu in New Delhi on Tuesday.

According to an estimate made by the State Government, the Google data centre project is expected to boost Rs10,518 crore average annual GSDP for the period of 2028–2032 and 1,88,220 jobs supported per year across construction, operations, IT, and supply chains.

Google Cloud spillovers will include Rs9, I 553 crore annual productivity-led impact and Rs47,720 crore over five years through digital enablement.

The government has decided to brand Visakhapatnaman as “AI City Vizag,” anchoring a global hub for AI, Cloud, and Data Analytics aligned with Digital India and India AI Mission.

In a welcome development, Sify Technologies here on Sunday kickstarted work on AP's first AI Edge Data Centre and Open Cable Landing Station with an initial investment of Rs1500 crore. IT, Electronics and HRD Minister Nara Lokesh said here that Visakhapatnaman is now all set to see Hyderabad-type transformation with several technology and data companies coming forward to invest.

Lokesh said almost half of the projects for which the NDA Government inked MoUs are being grounded in Visakhapatnam. With Bhogapuram International Airport getting ready for operations at a fast pace and efforts on to finalise firm for metro rail project, the city and its neighborhoods will become a $1 trillion economy.

"8 years - that’s how long it took to convince Sify to invest in AP. These investments take a lot of hard work. We will go beyond and make #Vizag a $1 trillion economy by 2047," Lokesh stated on its X handle.

Visakhapatnam has a huge potential to emerge as the next big destination for Global Capability Building Centres (GCCs), Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said recently at GCC Business Summit organised here by Confederation of Indian Industry (CII).