It is primarily an industrial city, apart from being a port city. It is also home to the Eastern Naval Command. Visakhapatnam has seen rapid development in the past decade[citation needed].

The Visakhapatnam Urban Development Authority (VUDA) will get a new master plan consequent to the increase in its purview from 170 km to 550 km. The earlier master plan was approved by the government in 2006. VUDA’s jurisdiction has been expanded in mid-2008.

The city sometimes goes by its now mostly defunct colonial British name, Waltair. During the colonial era, the city's hub was the Waltair railway station, and that part of the city is still called Waltair. It is sometimes referred to as the "City of Destiny".

Visakhapatnam is home to several state-owned heavy industries, one of the most advanced steel plants and has one of the country's largest ports and its oldest shipyard. It has the only natural harbour on the eastern coast of India.

 

Climate data for Visakhapatnam
Month	Jan	Feb	Mar	Apr	May	Jun	Jul	Aug	Sep	Oct	Nov	Dec	Year
Average high °C (°F)	28.9 (84.0)	31.3 (88.3)	33.8 (92.8)	35.3 (95.5)	36.2 (97.2)	35.3 (95.5)	32.9 (91.2)	32.7 (90.9)	32.5 (90.5)	31.7 (89.1)	30.4 (86.7)	28.9 (84.0)	32.5
Average low °C (°F)	18.0 (64.4)	19.9 (67.8)	23.0 (73.4)	26.1 (79.0)	27.7 (81.9)	27.3 (81.1)	26.1 (79.0)	26.0 (78.8)	25.6 (78.1)	24.3 (75.7)	21.6 (70.9)	18.6 (65.5)	23.7
Precipitation mm (inches)	11.4 (0.449)	7.7 (0.303)	7.5 (0.295)	27.6 (1.087)	57.8 (2.276)	105.6 (4.157)	134.6 (5.299)	141.2 (5.559)	174.8 (6.882)	204.3 (8.043)	65.3 (2.571)	7.9 (0.311)	945.7 (37.232)

Visakhapatnam City economy

From being a tiny hamlet of local fishing communities during the early days of the Indian Independence Struggle and for a few decades later, the city exploded economically, in fact the rise has been so dramatic that the city was identified as one of the fastest growing cities in the world economically and demographically. Various factors contributed to the city's growth economically, including the natural harbor, its location between Madras and Calcutta, access to the NH5 (a major National Expressway) and the developed network of railways which metamorphosed the village into a burgeoning industrial city.

Visakhapatnam Outer Harbour

The city has developed into a hub for many heavy industries. The Visakhapatnam Port, the largest in the country, was the ideal gateway contributing to the development of petroleum, steel and fertilizer industries. The Visakhapatnam Steel Plant [recently expanded from 3.1 to 6.3 MT and the Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Ltd. were the two multi-billion dollar investments which put Visakhapatnam on the world's industrial map. The city also has two N.T.P.C. power plants to satisfy the huge power needs of the industries. Visakhapatnam also houses the headquarters of the Dredging corporation of India

It is hub for iron ore and other mineral exports of India, where iron ore from Andhra Pradesh, Orissa, Chattisgarh, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh is transported to the Visakhapatnam port by means of both Rail transport & Road transport and from here minerals are exported using ships to China and other countries. Visakhapatnam district and its surroundings have Bauxite reserves of 1,000 MT, manganese ore and titanium reserves in the beach sand.[citation needed]

The city also owes its economic growth to the availability of an educated English-speaking workforce. English is the first language in many places of higher education in the city. This availability of a highly educated workforce allowed the entry of many ITES companies such as HSBC, IBM Daksh, Sutherland and Acclaris. The city registered over 100% growth in the I.T. sector over the last year, contributing millions of dollars to the economy. The city has 102 small and medium software and call centre units, of which about 10 units started their operations during the year 2005-07. Software exports from the Visakhapatnam in 2007 were worth Rs. 245 crores and 502 crores in 2008, 1000 crores in 2011 - an increase of nearly 90% every year. Various national and international IT and banking giants have set up or will be setting up offices in the city. Some IT companies started already are Mahindra Satyam, Kenexa, Infotech, Softsol, and Miracle Software. Wipro has finished construction of its campus and is about to start operations. The Andhra Pradesh government provided infrastructure and land for these companies to set up their development centers in the city outskirts. The Andhra Pradesh govt has also started an IT SEZ in Rushikonda hills at Visakhapatnam. IT industry is growing and it is believed that the pace of growth would increase once international flights start from the city's airport.

Mahindra Satyam Development Center

The growing population and economy have resulted in the revamping of the real estate prices with prices at some prime locations in the city quadrupling over the past couple of years. Various real estate companies are setting up housing projects in the outskirts of the city which is being touted as the future IT destination of the country.

The fishing industry is also on the rise with both foreign and domestic exports of tuna doubling over the past decade. The city has a port called Visakhapatnam Port started in 1933 and a second port called as Gangavaram Port started in 2008 [15 km from Visakhapatnam Port. It started with an investment of 2 billion dollars and is the deepest port in the country with the ability to handle the larger international vessels. Visakhapatnam Port is also expanding and planning to set up a Satellite Port at Bhimili 20 km away from Visakhapatnam.