Another First For Andhra Pradesh: State Govt. Unveils DTP  Policy 2017-2020

Andhra Pradesh state government has launched ‘Designated Technology Park aka DTP Policy 2017-2020’ in Amravati. As claimed, it is a first of its kind initiative in the country, aimed to solve office space crunch for IT companies in the state.

Those who want to set up their units in Andhra Pradesh are facing a shortage of office space as real-estate developers are skeptical about their businesses and not building office spaces, as per the state government.

‘Like no other state in the country, Andhra Pradesh is bringing in a lot of policies to support the IT sector. To overcome the space crunch issue for IT firms, under the direction of Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh Nara Chandrababu Naidu, we are bringing this DTP policy,” Minister Lokesh said.

The main objectives of DTP policy are to roll out incentives on providing office spaces for IT companies and give rental guarantee for real-estate developers for building office spaces for IT.

For instance:

• Under this policy, Andhra Pradesh Electronics and IT Agency will rent private built-up spaces from approved real-estate developers and allot them to IT companies at 50% subsidy.
• For real-estate developers, the government will give 50 to 70% rental guarantee for built-up office spaces for a period of 18 to 36 months. Those who develop 1 lakh to 2 lakh sq. ft. of office space will be given a rental guarantee for a period of 18 months, while it is 24, 30 and 36 months for those who develop 2-3 lakh sq. ft., 3-4 lakh sq. ft. and more than 4 lakh sq. ft. of office spaces respectively.

Andhra Pradesh state government aims to create one lakh IT jobs by 2019 and one crore sq. ft. of office space to facilitate the same.

Nara Lokesh said, ‘Through DTP policy, office spaces will be created with world class infrastructure facilities. We were able to bring down the approval time for office spaces for IT companies from 1 year to 50 days. We will reduce it further to 21 days soon. In order to use the policy, eligible IT companies and real estate developers can login to dtp.ap.gov.in website and register themselves.”

Post bifurcation, the state government is keen on creating ecosystem for IT development for which it has already brought in Information Technology Policy, Innovation & Startup Policy, Cyber Security Policy and Global In-house Policy for the development of IT in the state.

As claimed in an official statement, the Andhra Pradesh government had already generated over 22,000 jobs in IT. It is further aiming to make Vizag, the hub for Information Technology in the state. FinTech valley is being developed in Visakhapatnam and global companies working on latest technologies including Blockchain are being attracted to set up their units.

Recently, Andhra Pradesh also became the first state to join hands with Hyperloop Transportation Technologies to bring futuristic transportation system to the state.

With the new DTP policy, Andhra Pradesh government has certainly taken another step in its efforts to boost up the state’s IT and startup ecosystem. However, how well the state authorities will be able to implement this initiative in long run and how beneficial will it prove to be for the associated entities, remains to be seen.