To invest Rs 1,250 cr in Chennai facility expansion

Infosys Technologies Ltd said on Thursday that its upcoming campus at Mahindra City SEZ near Chennai would be the largest campus as it expects to hire some 25,000 people in three to four years. The company plans to invest Rs 1,250 crore over three to four years in expanding the facility, said Mr T.V. Mohandas Pai, Director — Education and Human Resources, Infosys.

Speaking to newspersons after detailing Infosys' expansion plans for Chennai to the visiting Tamil Nadu Chief Minister, Mr M. Karunanidhi, Mr Pai said the company already had about 3,500 people in Chennai and planned to add another 5,000 this year.

By the end of this year, Infosys would have invested Rs 350 crore in the Chennai campus, Mr Pai said, adding the company had already bought some 125 acres at Mahindra City. Infosys, which had a total headcount of a little over 52,000 at the end of fiscal 2006, plans to add about 25,000 people to its rolls in the current year.

Mr Karunanidhi, accompanied by the Union Minister for Communications & IT, Mr Dayanidhi Maran, also visited the headquarters of Wipro Ltd at Sarjapur Road and met the Chairman, Mr Azim Premji.

Mr Maran told newspersons that Mr Karunanidhi had come to Bangalore to personally visit the IT majors and see what they required to enhance their investments in Tamil Nadu.

IT policy soon


The TN government would soon formulate a comprehensive IT policy and promote the tier-II and tier-III cities, Mr Karnuanidhi said. The policy would involve setting up of a task force and addressing infrastructural issues. Stressing that his Government would remove all bottlenecks and build necessary infrastructure to attract investments, Mr Karunanidhi said ``the IT sector in Tamil Nadu will be developed similar to that of Karnataka or even better...We (his Government) are only a few days old...We will make all efforts.''

Further, the TN Industrial Secretary, Mr Shaktikant Das, said that Frost and Sullivan was conducting a feasibility study for setting up a IT park at Hosur.

It was on the cards anyway since Bangalroe has gone to dogs wrt infrasturcture and constant meddling of the Gowda clan. Note that D. Gowda and N. Murthy faught open battle. Not only Infy, other IT majors are setting up shops in Chennai so that the IT work is distributed.

IMO, it's time to invest in the RE market in Chennai for a long haul (5-10 yrs).
TK, where r u? Hope u r in the loop.

DIO