Nasdaq-listed Cognizant Technology Solutions on Monday announced Rs 115 crore (Rs 1.15 billion) investments in Chennai for setting up a training academy and two software development blocks, which can accommodate 3,500 employees.
Cognizant was also 'evaluating' establishing a development centre in Coimbatore that could employ 400 people during the first year of operations, its President and CEO Lakshmi Narayanan told a news conference in Chennai.
The IT services company, which employs its biggest workforce in Chennai at 7,300 people, was committed to constructing a fully owned techno-complex in Siruseri, on the outskirts of the city.
"This will be ready for occupancy in a phased manner, starting December 2005," Narayanan said.
The first phase of the new facility will have a development centre spread over 200,000 sq ft of built up space and will accommodate about 2,000 professionals.
In addition to this facility, Cognizant has signed up six acres of land adjacent to its existing techno-complex in Thoraipakkom in Chennai for constructing another software development part.
"This block will have a built up space of 150,000 sq ft and will accommodate approximately 1,500 people when completed in December 2005," he said.
Narayanan said Cognizant was also constructing a dedicated training facility, Cognizant Academy, at its Siruseri facility. The facility, which will have 75 classrooms in a space of 1,00,000 sq ft to train about 1,800 professionals simultaneously, Narayanan said.
"Cognizant is committed to investing $25.4 million (about Rs 115 crore) in the Chennai expansion," he said.
Cognizant has now invested about Rs 300 crore (Rs 3 billion) in Chennai alone, since it first began its operations in 1994. In India, where Cognizant employs about 12,000 people, out of a total of 16,000 professionals globally, the company has invested close to Rs 500 crore (Rs 5 billion), Narayanan said.
Narayanan said Cognizant plans to set up its next development location in India at Coimbatore. "We are currently looking at various lease options and plan to take up about 40,000 sq.ft of office space to accommodate about 400 professionals in the first year of operations," he said.
He said the rich talent pool of technical professionals and good infrastructure facilities make it an ideal location among the second-tier cities. To start with, Cognizant plans to focus on three of its service offerings from Coimbatore -- applications maintenance, testing services and IT infrastructure management.