No space to grow in Bangalore: Infosys

Space constraint is detering Infosys Technologies' growth plans in Bangalore, and the software major expects most of the future head count addition to happen in other Indian cities.

T V Mohandas Pai, CFO of Infosys, said the company was seeking land in Bangalore for expansion in the last four years, but hasn't succeeded.

"We have no space in Bangalore. We have no capacity to expand in Bangalore. Bangalore is a very attactive destination to hire people, but we don't have space to add."

The Bangalore-headquartered Infosys has operations in nine cities across the country apart from its global presence.

Pai said around 16,000 of the total 41,600 seats of the company in India are in Bangalore. Only 2,500 of the total 16,500 seats added in recent times have gone to Bangalore where it began operations in a humble way in 1981. "When the capacity is increased to 58,000 seats, may be 18,000 will be in Bangalore," he added.

"In the last 4-5 years, the share of Bangalore has been coming down. We are growing faster in other centres", he said.

According to Pai, the company is not in a position to expand at its current location due to traffic problems on Hosur road. "We have to go elsewhere. But elsewhere also we don't have land to expand. Nobody has given us land."

Quoting a survey of Bangalore-based software companies, Pai said all the firms have said that their hiring plans for 2006-07 is significantly lower than the hiring in 2004-05. "There is a message (in it)", he observed.

Nandan Nilekani, chief executive officer, president and managing director of Infosys, said the company is adding 21,200 people during the current financial year, and added that the firm needs space to train and locate them.

"We will build capacity where we can quickly do that... Where there is infrastructure. Matter (infrastructure) is not in our hands. We have to grow, and we will grow where the path is of least resistence," Nilekani said.

Click here for report on Q3 results of Infosys