Hyderabad may get largest Infy campus

HYDERABAD: Going by current indications, Hyderabad is all set to house Infosys' largest campus in the country. Even though negotiations are on, the Indian IT bellwether is likely to set up its second campus in the city spread over 400-700 acres at Maheshwaram, close to the upcoming international airport.
A high-level Infosys team, which deals with infrastructure issues is expected to be in town later this week to have a close look at the land being offered to them.
The team will also indicate the amount of land it wants. The land will be offered to the company at government rates — which is much less than the market rate. The government is willing to give up to 1,000 acres to the company, but the corporate wants much less.
Infosys' largest campus till now is in Mysore where it is sprawled over 325 acres and Bangalore, where the company is located on 80 acres of land.
A high-level team was to visit Hyderabad on January 27. Since the CM was not available on that day — as his mother had passed away — the team dropped the visit.
Incidentally Hi-tech city, the present hub of IT in Hyderabad occupies only 140 acres of land. Infosys' campus alone will be bigger than this. When Infosys sets up this new complex, it will be their second campus in Hyderabad. The total investment by Infosys so far in Karnataka is about Rs 1,700 crore. In Hyderabad; the company has its campus in about 50 acres. While in Karnataka, the company has about 30,000 people, it already employs over 4,500people in Hyderabad. "The company is likely to go in for outright purchase of land at government rates instead of going in for a job-linked subsidy scheme," a source said. The IT major is also likely to seek SEZ status for its new campus. Once the Centre grants the status, the company will be eligible for income benefits for 10 years, duty-free import and domestic procurement of goods required for operations, exemption from service tax and an option of generation, distribution and transmission of power. "The proposed campus of Infosys near Shamshabad will be the mother of all campuses. But, one has to wait and see the employment potential the campus provides. Hi-tech City, with over 100 prominent companies, provides jobs to over one lakh people," an industry source said.