The observatory is operational since 1994 in the campus of Andhra University. The Institute has one coastal station at Alibag, on the west coast of India. It was felt necessary to have another station, on the same latitude of Alibag, on the east coast of India to unravel the hitherto unknown oceanic effects between the stations. The station at Visakhapatnam was also needed as a base station for a marine magnetic survey carried out off Bay of Bengal coast. IIG and Andhra University, mutually agreed on setting such a magnetic observatory and appropriate land at an electromagnetic noise free location was leased to IIG by the University.