TCS plans to double its headcount in Kolkata in next 2 years

Will spend Rs 1,350 crore to set up 16,500-seat campus in Rajarhat

Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), the largest software exporter in the country, today said it plans to double its headcount in Kolkata over the next two to three years. The software firm will spend Rs 1,350 crore to set up a new campus in Rajarhat, Kolkata that will create additional 16,500 jobs.

"Our growing presence in Kolkata continues to be of strategic importance for our overall business growth. We have around 18,000 employees in our offices in Kolkata. By end of financial year 2014-15, we expect to have around 35,000 employees here," S Mahalingam, chief financial officer and executive director at TCS, told reporters here today.

The new campus, spread over 40 acres of land, will be built in two phases. The first phase is expected to be completed in the first quarter of 2014 and the second phase by the fourth quarter of the year.

In the first phase, 7,000 seats will be ready while the remaining 9,500 seats will be completed during the second phase.

Tata Realty and Infrastructure has been given the responsibility for overall development of the project. Tata Consulting Engineers is the project management partner while a joint venture of Larsen & Toubro (L&T) and Shapoorji Pallonji & Co will execute the project.

The new campus in Kolkata is also classified as IT SEZ (information technology special economic zone). TCS currently has five IT SEZs across India and is building three more including the new campus in Kolkata.

The company will spend nearly Rs 13,500 crore to build campuses across the country over the next few years.

According to Ajoy Mukherjee, executive vice president and global head of human resources at TCS, the company plans to hire 50,000 employees in the current financial year of which it has recruited around 40,000 people since April, 2012.

He did not offer the overall hiring target for next financial year but said the company will recruit around 25,000 people from college campuses.

In October-December, around 9,500 people from campuses and another 2,500 experienced professional joined TCS. The total employee count was 254,076 at the end of September, 2012.

On an average, TCS hires around 5,000 fresh graduates and 3,500 experienced professionals from West Bengal annually, Mukherjee said.