"Wi-Fi service would be available throughout the city and educational institutions with a speed ranging from 2 MBPS to 20 MBPS," HRD Minister Ganta Srinivasa Rao said while launching the project from Sunrise Start-Up village at Madhuravada IT SEZ. The pilot project will primarily cover areas like RK Beach, Vuda Park and Kailasagiri.

On the occasion, the minister spoke to some people on the quality of the service through a video call. The project is a joint venture between QuadGen and BSNL and the services would be managed by the Greater Visakhapatnam Municipal Corporation. "The first 30 minutes of the Wi-Fi service will be free and this project is first-of-its-kind in Andhra Pradesh," the minister added. He also launched 1 GBPS high-speed Internet service for the Start-Up Village for the benefit of entrepreneurs.

The project is a joint venture between IT department of state government and mobile service provider, Airtel. The minister said one more Start-Up Village would be developed with 5 lakh square feet space in the SEZ to enable the enthusiastic entrepreneurs to develop the IT sector and related enterprises. "By creating internet facility all over the state, the government would soon make computer education mandatory," Rao said. Meanwhile, Andhra Pradesh e-governance advisor J Satynarayana said chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu would lay the foundation stone for the ambitious Signature Tower project by this month-end.

He said tenders have been finalised and work on the project would commence soon. Under the project, wherein the state government aims to replicate Hyderabad's Cyber Towers in Visakhapatnam, the 10-storied building will come up on a hill in an area of 21.16 acres. "The government is planning to launch AP Fibre Grid which would help in providing Internet connectivity to all villages in the state while under E-Pragati programme, 72 types of services would be provided to people under the seven missions," Satyanarayana said.