Wipro to have second largest facility in Hyderabad

Hyderabad, Apr 24 (UNI) Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Y S Rajasekhara Reddy today inaugurated the Wipro Manikonda campus and unveiled the foundation stone for Wipro's campus at Gopanapally today.

Wipro Chairman Azim Premji today said the new campus would be the company's second largest in the world.

The Government allotted 30 acre land to Wipro in Manikonda village in Ranga Reddy district, of which six lakh sq ft of office space in 14 acre had already been constructed. Another 8 to 10 lakh sq ft of construction was being taken up in Phase II at a cost of Rs 300 crore. The present facility employed 3,500 software professionals and the strength would go upto 5,500 after completion of Phase II.

Speaking at the function in Gopanapally, Dr Reddy thanked Mr Premji for deciding to strengthen his company's operations in Andhra Pradesh. It was heartening to note that Wipro was developing yet another centre at Visakhapatnam. Promising full support in providing infrastructure and a congenial atmosphere, Dr Reddy said Wipro proposed to employ 30,000 professionals in Andhra Pradesh.

Announcing that the government proposed to introduce computer education in 10,000 government schools, Dr Reddy appealed to IT majors like Wipro to extend cooperation. The government proposed to convert all 33 engineering colleges into Jawahar Knowledge Centres.

Stating that there were abundant human resources in the state, Dr Reddy appealed to IT companies to utilise this.

Earlier, Mr Premji said Wipro's exports from Andhra Pradesh last year were to the tune of Rs 1200 crore. The facility being developed would be the company's second largest in the world. The company would eventually employ 6,000 professionals in Hyderabad, he said, adding, Andhra Pradesh was important to his company as its Santoor soap occupied 23 per cent market share.

Mr Premji said the company was running 549 primary schools in Chittoor district, catering to the educational needs of 70,000 students and employing 2,000 teachers. For changing the quality of education, CDs were prepared and being distributed to schools.

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