Hyderabad, May 6 : Expanding the information technology sector to tier-II towns in Telangana, the state government on Saturday opened an IT tower in Mahabubnagar. Minister for Information Technology and Industries, K T. Rama Rao, inaugurated the IT tower, which is the fourth such facility in tier-II towns. The minister said that the proximity of the facility to Hyderabad and Shamshabad airport will attract companies to establish their operations in the area. Spread across four acres, the IT tower in Mahbubnagar consists of G+four floors where companies and the state government's innovation ecosystem are provided with space to set up their offices or centres. The building consists of 44 office spaces, 10 conference halls, an Innovation Centre, a Knowledge Hub and a Cafeteria. On the occasion, the IT Minister also inaugurated Telangana Academy of Skill and Knowledge's (TASK) centre, facilitation centres of T-Hub and WE-HUB located in the building. Besides this, Seat Allocation Letters were handed over to nine companies, to set up their operations at the facility. The companies are Mueller dotKonnect, Amara Raja Group, Zuven Technologies, Intuites LLC, Urpan Technologies, E-grove Systems, IT Vision 360 Inc, Four Oaks Inc and BCDC Cloud Centers Pvt Ltd. KTR on Friday inaugurated four IT companies in Hanamkonda. The four companies are LTI Mindtree, Genpact, HRH Next, Hexad Solutions Pvt Ltd. The Minister handed over appreciation letters to representatives of the companies for setting up their facilities in Hanamkonda. Genpact has already hired 400 associates from the local colleges. LTI Mindtree has hired 60 associates from the local colleges. HRH Next has hired 120 associates at Warangal. It plans to grow this to 500 plus in the coming months. Hexad Solutions Group already hired 50 people at Warangal Design Center offering engineering and design services to Wireline, Wireless and CATV communications. KTR noted that Hyderabad has made significant improvements in IT by becoming home to top global brands of the world such as Google, Microsoft, Amazon, Qualcomm, Uber, Micron, Wells Fargo, Bank of America, JP Morgan Chase and UBS. Mahindra, MRF, Olectra, Mythra and Race Energy have also set up new centres in Telangana. ZF, Frisker, Stellantis, Hyundai and Biliti too set up their campuses in Hyderabad. He said that by creating the policy framework, infrastructure and access to human capital, Hyderabad has become a chosen destination. "We are likely to cross 2.2 lakh crore exports in 2022-23 which is close to 20 per cent growth Year over Year from 1.83 lakh crore. The IT Sector with a total employment of 785,614 direct jobs in 2021-22, added over 1.5 lakh jobs in 2021-22 alone," he said. As part of the vision of Telangana, the plan is to spread the growth across Telangana, not limiting this to Hyderabad Northwest Corner - Hitec City and Gachibowli. Telangana Government has rolled out GRID (Growth in Dispersion) and rural development policies to spur the growth across Telangana. As part of that strategy, Telangana state has already inaugurated IT Centres at Warangal, Karimnagar and Khammam, which are already operational and creating local employment with multiplier effect to the local economy. KTR said that IT towers in Nizamabad, Nalgonda and Siddipet will be inaugurated in a few months. The IT tower in Adilabad is also shaping up well. Besides creating employment to rural youth, these IT Towers reduce migration to larger cities, boost local businesses and aid in equitable development of the state. /IANS