Firm to delay Orissa centre by 2 months

Wipro Technologies, one of the country's leading software services providers, may delay its proposed development centre in Bhubaneswar by two months owing to the slowdown in the IT sector.

The IT heavyweight, which is currently operating out of a rented facility in the city, has taken possession of about 26 acres in the Infocity area to set up its full-fledged centre and it was expected to resume operations by January. The company has already completed the construction of one tower, with a capacity to accommodate around 1,000 staffers. While the first tower is ready for operation, the second tower is expected to be readied by December next year.

“Our proposed software development centre in the city may be delayed by a couple of months owing to the prevailing economic downturn. The decision on resuming operations of the centre is likely to be taken by the first week of next month,” a top company executive said.

He said the software firm will cater to its manpower requirement for the initial 1,000 employees through a mix of fresh recruitments as well as redeployment of its staff from other locations.

Meanwhile, TCS, the country’s largest software exporter, is set to inaugurate its first tower of a centre on January 5. Initially, TCS would need a pool of about 1,500 professionals for running the centre.

Besides Wipro, other software majors such as MindTree Consulting and Genpact are also likely to defer the construction plans of their centres in the city by at least three months. MindTree is setting up a software development centre at an estimated investment of Rs 200 crore, was scheduled to start construction by September this year. Genpact expected its proposed global operation centre in the city to be operational by the third or fourth quarter of 2009.