TCS to invest Rs 668 crore in Chennai facility

The facility, to come up at Siruseri Industrial Park, will house about 21,000 people

Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) is setting up its largest facility, which will house about 21,000 people, in Chennai at an investment of $150 million (about Rs 668 crore).

The facility will come up on 75-80 acres of land at the Siruseri Industrial Park on the IT corridor of Chennai. The first phase of the project with a seating capacity for 3,500 people is likely to be ready by the fourth quarter of this fiscal.

The facility is expected to be ready with the seating capacity for about 21,000 people by the second quarter of the next fiscal.

TCS is also planning to hire 8,000 professionals during this year taking the total staff strength in Chennai to 22,500 by the end of this fiscal. Of the 8,000 professionals, about 80 per cent would be hired for banking, financial services and insurance, and retail verticals.

Ravi Viswanathan, vice-president and head "" Chennai operations, TCS, said that of the top 30 clients of TCS, 20 were serviced out of Chennai.

As part of its innovation drive, the company has created a wireless retail store in its retail solution facility at Karapakkam, Chennai. It has also set up an innovation lab, focusing on wireless technology, at its telecom solution centre at Tidal park.

Earlier addressing a press conference, S Ramadorai, chief executive officer and managing director, TCS, said that the company had positioned itself as an integrated full-services player and was seeing a positive momentum with verticalised strategy.

Verticalised strategy had helped improve the company's domain capabilities, besides offering options to its employees to work in different vertical areas, he added.

Ramadorai also said that TCS' global network delivery model had gained maturity and the number of associates in overseas global delivery centres crossed 3,000 people.

He said that large deals were critical for the company's growth and most of these deals would be delivered out of various centres. TCS would continue to focus on North America, Europe and Latin America besides the domestic market.

The company, which currently employs 60,000 people, plans a gross addition of 30,500 people in 2006-07. It has already made 9,200 campus offers for new recruits in 2006-07.

Viswanathan said that 52 per cent of TCS' associates had more than three years' of work experience in industry or in other company. Women comprised 24 per cent (22 per cent during last year) of its workforce.