Infy to make Mysore campus a 'model smart city'

Work on the 340-acre campus expected to be completed by April this year

Following the announcement by Infosys CEO and managing director Vishal Sikka that the company's Mysuru (formerly known as Mysore) campus would be converted into a model smart city, 250-300 additional features are set to be introduced in the campus. Infosys hopes to complete the work by April this year.

The Bengaluru-based firm has already used the latest technologies in infrastructure management and building construction for the sprawling 340-acre campus, which has got 12 million sq ft built-up area, including the largest classical monolithic building in post-independent India measuring about one million sq ft.

"After I met Prime Minister Narendra Modi and announced the plans to convert our Mysuru campus as a model smart city for the nation, there is a list of 250-300 things that our team has proposed to introduce in the campus between now and April. Now we are adding all kinds of things such as getting rid of gas emission, zero waste to landfill, stopping the use of cars and making it completely digital," Sikka told Business Standard.

The construction of Infosys' Mysuru campus started in 2001. Considered the largest training facility in India, the campus can train 15,000 people at a time. It also has 16,000 software development seats, 10,000 rooms and 14,500 beds for the trainees including all-digital classrooms and library facility.

"This is a normal practice of sharing knowledge and we take pride in inviting people to demonstrate the facility as the government plans to launch smart cities across the country," said Ramdas Kamath, executive vice-president, Infosys.

Kamath said most of the elements required for a smart city, such as green building, accessibility, building management system, seamless security service and resource management were already in use in the campus.

"There are certain new things which we are planning to retrofit. Today, the Smart City concept has become so popular that everybody has started talking about it and come out with new ideas. For example, this morning I got a mail from somebody who has proposed to put beehives in the campus so that pollination happens," added Kamath, who heads facilities, administration, security and sustainability at Infosys.

Following his meeting with Modi last week, Sikka said that besides developing Infosys' Mysuru campus as a smart city, it would also offer its expertise in the areas of smart infrastructure planning and sustainable building technology to the urban development ministry.

According to reports, the government has also sought suggestions from Infosys and architect Hafeez Contractor to develop model architectural plan for setting up new Indian Institutes of Technology (IIT) and Indian Institutes of Management (IIM).