The Hindu : World's largest IT campus coming up

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Feb 26, 2004

Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu

World's largest IT campus coming up

By Shanthi Kannan

CHENNAI, FEB. 25. The Chief Minister, Jayalalithaa, today laid the foundation stone for the world's largest software development campus, to be built by Infosys Technologies. It will be constructed on 126 acres at Mahindra City, a 30-minute drive from the Chennai International Airport.

The Chief Minister electronically unveiled a plaque at a function held at the Secretariat here in the presence of N. R. Narayana Murthy, Chairman, Infosys Technologies Ltd., and Anand G. Mahindra, Vice-Chairman and Managing Director, Mahindra & Mahindra. She expressed the hope that this would serve as a harbinger for others to make use of the world-class facilities on offer at Mahindra City.

Mr. Murthy said Infosys planned to invest, in Phase-I, approximately Rs. 250 crores in the new facility, which would have a capacity for 5,000 persons and a built-up area of nearly 1 million sqft. On completion, the project would have a built-up area of 3.5 million sqft on 129 acres with 25,000 seats requiring 22.5 MW of power, 15 lakh litres of water and an investment of Rs. 1,250 crores.

The Infosys chief said, "This new campus is a testimony to the dedication and high quality work produced by our Chennai team. I am positive that on the new campus they will find facilities that match the best in the world. We are also grateful to the Tamil Nadu Government for taking a keen interest in developing the IT infrastructure in the State. Infosys is committed to building this new Chennai centre into a truly world-class facility."

Infosys commenced its Chennai operations in 1995 and the company invested Rs. 100 crores in the campus at Sholinganallur, with a built-up area of 4,50,000 sqft. The centre is one of the first to have implemented the practices of the CMMI (Capability Maturity Model Integration) model to provide measurable business benefits to clients. Exports from the Chennai centre stood at Rs. 742 crores in the 12 months ended December 31, 2003.

Mr. Mahindra said the City would entail an investment of over Rs. 300 crores in land and basic infrastructure alone. JTC International, Singapore, which had developed several such parks in Singapore and South-East Asia, had done the master planning for the park. The design was based on modern industrial estate planning concepts, providing efficient internal circulation, large expanse of space for future expansion, supporting social amenities and a scenic environment

He said the City's anchor client — Infosys — and its investment in Mahindra City would speak volumes of the world-class facilities on offer here.

Importantly, Tamil Nadu offered many advantages including access to a large reservoir of skilled and technical manpower. All of which made for a successful recipe for the park.

The Mahindra Group Vice-Chairman said the City was a unique concept, which encompassed both business and lifestyle spheres.

Designed on the `several parks within a park' concept, it offered specialist business zones with customised infrastructure to give industries a competitive edge. These included knowledge industries such as IT and biotechnology as well as export-oriented manufacturing industries including electronic hardware.

The City also offered an exclusive housing zone complete with entertainment complexes, mega malls, clubhouses and healthcare facilities.

Mahindra City's operational infrastructure includes an onsite sub-station from the Tamil Nadu Electricity Board and Optic Fibre Connectivity from Bharti Telenet.

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