Infosys to resume work on 2nd campus in April 2010

IT major Infosys Technologies would start construction work on its second campus in the city in April 2010.

The second campus of Infosys, the biggest software services exporter from the state, would come up on a 100-acre plot in the Infocity-II area of the city.

The Infocity-II region is being developed by the Orissa government on over 600 acres of land at Janla between Bhubaneswar and Khurda. Infosys is set to be the anchor tenant of the region. Infosys has committed an investment of Rs 300 crore in the first phase of the project which is scheduled to be operational within 14 months of commencement of construction work.

Infosys has a headcount of around 3,500 at its existing city centre spread over 45 acres and would add 3,000 more people in the first phase of its expansion project. The second campus would have a pool of 5,000 employees in all.

“Infosys has sought 100 acres of land for their second campus in the city. In the first phase, we will allot 50 acres of land to the IT firm in the Infociy-II area”, Pradipta K Mohapatra, the state IT secretary told Business Standard. He hinted that the total investment of Infosys for its second campus may exceed Rs 500 crore. Last evening, T V Mohandas Pai, Infosys human resources director and member of the company's board, met the state chief minister Naveen Patnaik. Pai is understood to have conveyed the detailed investment plan of Infosys to the chief minister.

The state government has assured to provide water and uninterrupted power supply to Infosys for its second campus in the city. In 2008-09, Orissa recorded software exports worth Rs 1168 crore and Infosys had the lion's share, accounting for more than 70 per cent of exports.

As per the estimates of the state IT department, the Infocity-II project would be fully operational by the end of 2012. The state government has already sanctioned Rs 150 crore for developing external infrastructure for the project like approach road, electricity and water.

The Infocity-II project would attract many IT firms and it would have a total manpower pool of 1,20,000, Mohaptra said.

The project is set to attract investments worth Rs 4,000 crore from IT ad ITes (IT enabled services) companies.

It would generate direct and indirect employment for about four lakh people in the information technology (IT) and ITes sectors. Presently, more than 18,000 professionals were engaged in the IT sector in the state while the ITes sector had a workforce of over 15,000.