Wipro plans software development centre at Bhubaneswar

Wipro has signed a MoU with the Orissa government for setting up a software development and BPO service centre at Bhubaneswar.

The Wipro facility would come up over 30-acres within the Infocity, a dedicated IT complex on the outskirts of the city. At present, a host of IT firms including Infosys have their development centers located in Infocity.

Wipro's entry follows signing of a MoU between TCS and the IT department of the Orissa government last month for starting a big IT development centre of TCS over 45 acres of land inside Infocity. Among the other major IT firms, Satyam has been operating its development centre in the city since 1997-98.

Work on the first phase of Wipro centre, which would comprise at least one unit with a capacity to house between 1000 and1500 people, is expected to start next year and would be completed within two years.

It is expected that the new centre would have world-class amenities with supporting infrastructures such as auditorium, training facilities, residential hostels, indoor and outdoor facilities apart from core Information and Communication Technology (ICT) infrastructure required for various services to be offered by this centre.

On today's agreement, Orissa's IT minister SN Patra said, the establishment of an integrated centre covering software and IT enabled services by Wipro in Bhubaneswar will give a boost to the image of the state as a favourable IT destination in the country.

He said, Bhubaneswar has already emerged as an important ICT centre and during the current year, the growth in software exports from the state is to exceed 40 per cent and touch Rs 500 crore.

With the setting up of the Wipro facilities and arrival of few other IT majors, the Infocity is all set to cross Rs1,000 crore export mark in IT and related services within the next three years.

The Orissa government has committed to provide necessary infrastructural support and facilitate all clearances required for implementation of the project through its single window organisation, namely Orissa Computer Application Centre, backed by the department of IT.

The MoU for the IT venture was signed by Tamal Dasgupta, chief information officer, on behalf of Wipro and A K Tripathy, secretary, IT on behalf of the Orissa government in the presence of Naveen Patnaik, chief minister, Surjya Narayan Patro, minister, information technology, energy and tourism and Subas Pani, chief secretary, Orissa.