MIT to set up Super Fab Lab in Visakhapatnam.

‘Brand Vizag’ will get a shot in the arm with the State government allotting two acres at sea-facing Rushikonda to Massachusetts Institute of Technology to set up a Super Fab Lab.

“The land has been allotted with a promise that the world famous institute will launch work and generate employment opportunities to locals,” IT Minister Palle Raghunatha Reddy said after a review meeting recently.

Fab Labs are set up as part of outreach component of MIT’s Centre for Bits and Atoms (CBA) – an extension of its research into digital fabrication and computation. It is a technical prototype platform to encourage innovation and invention among budding entrepreneurs.

The lab is a workshop offering a wide array of digital fabrication. It will have several computer controlled tools to cover any length to do everything.

When contacted, State IT Special Secretary G.S. Phani Kumar told The Hindu that Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu had approved the project with topmost priority to promote the image of Brand Vizag. He said work on the project would start in a couple of months.

During the visit of the United States in September, last year Mr. Reddy and his team had received Letter of Intent for investment in AP from 63 companies, mostly run by NRIs.

Of them, 40 evinced interest to locate their firms in Visakhapatnam.

Mr. Phani Kumar said that Wipro and Tech Mahindra, which had been allotted additional space to launch work on their new campuses in the city to create jobs for over 10,000 were waiting for grant of Special Economic Zone status from the Union Ministry of Commerce to launch work.

THE HINDU