The Hindu Business Line : Cognizant's second campus in Chennai soon

COGNIZANT Technology Solutions will construct its second campus here at a cost of Rs 115 crore. It will commence construction in the second quarter of 2004 and complete the campus, called techno-complex, by 2005-end, according to Mr R. Rajaopalan, Vice-President, Finance and Administration.

The centre will have a built-up space of about four-lakh sq.ft. In the interim, the company would lease an additional 50,000-sq.ft. space to meet its growing number of employees in the city, he told presspersons on Monday.

The software major recently inaugurated its first techno-complex on the Old Mahabalipuram Road, the city's information technology corridor. The campus was built at a cost of Rs 115 crore, and accommodates about 3,500 employees. The new development centre will also be built at the same place on about nine acres of land, he said.

Meanwhile, Cognizant will add about 2,000 people this year to take the total number of employees in the city to over 6,000. Globally, the company increased its employee strength by 3,000 to a total of 9,200 in 2003. It expects to add about 4,000 employees in 2004.

According to Mr Rajagopalan, Cognizant had announced earlier that it would spend Rs 385 crore on real estate in India to build its own complexes in Chennai, Pune, Kolkata and Bangalore. The construction of the complexes in Chennai, Kolkata and Pune has been completed. Cognizant will construct one in Bangalore in 15 months to accommodate about 1,200 employees.

The funding for real estate investment would come from the company's internal accruals. Cognizant has about $196 million (about Rs 860 crore) in cash. It employs about 1,000 in Kolkata and another 1,000 in Pune, he said.