IT firm CEO bats for two airports for Visakha region to meet future demand

Airport Advisory Committee member and CEO Symbiosys Technologies O. Naresh Kumar on Thursday while expressing the changing tech landscape in Visakhapatnam urged the State Government to prioritise connectivity issues.

He wanted to keep pace with the projected growth, it is essential to address the infrastructure challenges and plan for sustainable development as there will be a reverse migration trend with people preferring to stay or move back to Visakhapatnam.

Strongly advocating two airports to meet the growing demand of the region, he said even after the scheduled commencement of operations at Bhogapuram International Airport by June, 2026, about 40 km from here, he said the Visakhapatnam Economic Region will require the operation of Visakhapatnam International Airport for civilian needs.

Visakhapatnam International Airport, which has a night landing facility with a cargo handling section, is a civil enclave located on INS Dega Air Station of the Indian Navy is proposed to be shut down after the Bhogapuram International Airport becomes operational. Naresh Kumar said like Goa, both the airports should function simultaneously to meet the civilian needs.

He said the inauguration of temporary campus of Cognizant Technology Solutions (CTS) and the makeover being done to Millennium Towers at Rushikonda to house the temporary campus of Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) and the decision by Google to invest $15 billion on AI data center hub in Visakhapatnam will totally change the investment landscape of Visakhapatnam in a few years. While thanking Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu for bringing mega investments to the region, he appealed to him to regularly monitor metro and highway expansion projects to ease traffic woes in and around the city. He also wanted the authorities concerned to focus on creating adequate parking provision.

Naresh Kumar the entry big ticket projects, though late, will be a major reboot for the tech landscape in Visakhapatnam. " We can expect more investments in AI. We can expect more data centres. We can have more experienced people relocating to Visakhapatnam and we will have more skill development centres here."

Naresh Kumar, who is also vice-president of Rushikonda IT Parks Association (RITPA), said since two major underground sea cables are landing in Visakhapatnam, very high speed bandwidths will be available. This will bring more investments in banking/ insurance sectors as well as more employment.

He said this will have a cascading effect on the local economy as the salaries of people will go up. Sales of two-wheelers/apartments are expected to pick up. "We can see that all retail spaces will see better footfall... Migration from Visakhapatnam and surrounding areas to Bengaluru/Hyderabad will drastically go down."

He opined that people will prefer to work here as major companies will have their campuses. "Overall, the situation is very positive. Only our urban infrastructure needs to improve to keep pace with new investments. We need more parking spaces/ bus stops/ open spaces..wider roads/ new master plan roads/ flyovers to be completed quickly. We need two new additional trains to each metro .High-speed trains should be introduced to all metros including Hyderabad, Bengaluru, Chennai. Kolkata, Mumbai as well as the world famous pilgrimage centre of Tirupati..