Infosys acquires land for 2nd B'lore campus

Government lends no hand to software giant.

The country's second largest software exporter by revenue, Infosys Technologies Limited, has acquired 300 acres of land near Sarjapur off Bangalore to develop its second campus in the city.

This is the first time that the company has acquired land on its own without seeking the assistance of the state government's land acquisition agency, Karnataka Industrial Area Development Board (KIADB).

"We bought the land directly from the owners for prevailing market prices. At present, the process of conversion of the land use pattern is in progress. We expect the entire process to be completed in the coming days," Mohandas Pai, Member of the Board and Director (Human Resources, Education, Research and Administration), Infosys, told Business Standard.

Since 2004, all successive state governments had been sitting on Infosys' application for additional land to expand campus in the city. When the JD (S) was in power, its chief H D Deve Gowda had even questioned the need for additional land. Since the issue took a political turn, Infosys decided to go ahead with the land acquisition on its own.

Pai said the company was yet to work out the plan for the second campus. "Once the land conversion is sanctioned, we will work on the design for the campus. It will be a long term project and an ongoing process," he added.

The company intends to freeze the number of employees in Bangalore to 25,000 by the end of the fiscal. At present, Bangalore, which is the company's largest centre, has 21,293 seats. Another 3,787 seats are being added in Bangalore to take the total headcount to 25,080 by March.

"We are taking space for 3,787 seats from a private firm on lease. It is our intention to cap the Bangalore centre at 25,000. The growth will stagnate in Bangalore and the focus will be on other centres. We are also planning to add 5,000 seats to the existing 5,434 seats in Mysore," Pai said.

In the coming days, Pune will emerge as the largest centre for the company. At present, it employs 11,901 employees in Pune. Infosys is ramping up capacity in Pune to add 11,782 seats. "Pune will have in excess of 26,000 seats in the coming days. Our intention is clear. We want to grow in all other centres."

The company, which employs 9,430 personnel in Hyderabad, has been allotted an additional 447 acres of land in the city. "The land was allotted to us in the third quarter of 2007-08. We intend to start work on the campus soon," Pai said.

Infosys had a total seating capacity of 70,321 as of December 31, 2007. It intends to add another 29,791 seats in the coming months for which work is under progress.

They include 636 in Bhubaneshwar (existing is 3,300); 2,216 in Chandigarh (existing is 3,900); 5000 in Chennai (existing is 8,966); 1,000 in Gurgaon (existing is 195); 3,200 in Jaipur (existing is 890); 1,600 in Mangalore (existing is 3,275) and 220 in Thiruvananthapuram (existing is 1,337).