TCS plans Rs 500 cr investment in Hinjewadi phase-III

Mumbai, June 10 (UNI) Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) today signed a MoU with the Maharashtra Government to acquire 50 acres of land to develop a modern development facility in Hinjewadi phase-III, which is a part of a MIDC-promoted special economic zone (SEZ).

TCS will invest upto Rs 500 crore in the facility and about 9,000 technocrats will be employed in the next one year, Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh said after the MoU was signed at his official residence 'Varsha', in South Mumbai here.

He said the demand is 20 per cent more than the land availability in Hinjewadi and with Tatas entering the SEZ, the demand would go in leaps and bounds. Mr Deshmukh said captains of the industry should not concentrate only on Mumbai and Pune, but spread their wings in rest of the State, including Auranagabad and Nagpur. He said Mumbai and Pune had reached a saturation point.

On the occasion, TCS CEO and MD S Ramadorai said his company is considering Nagpur as a part of its expansion plans. Similarly, TCS will carry out a feasibility study of investment in Aurangabad as well.

Mr Deshmukh thanked the Tata group, stating that it belonged to Maharashtra which had the State's interests as their primary concern. The State government had recently honoured Tata Sons' Chairman Ratan Tata with the 'Maharashtra Bhushan' award.

Mr Ramadorai informed that in addition to a software development centre, the new Hinjewadi facility will house professionals from TCS's research and engineering services' groups.

Industries secretary V K Jairath informed that the accquisition of 50 acre of land in Hinjewadi has already been done. Mr Deshmukh said the project affected especially the farmers are being taken into confidence before rehabilitating them. ''Industrial development is a must to bring prosperity,'' he said when asked about the resistance of farmers to the land accquisition near Pune earlier this year.

Mr Jairath further said the total investment in SEZs so far is Rs 89,000 crore for the next five to six years. The overall investment including infrastructure and units is Rs 2.34 lakh crore. ''There are more than 54 SEZs - some functioning and some proposed and there are plans for more,'' he added.

Industries Minister Ashok Chavan said Malaysia has envinced interest for investment in infrastructure development in the State.

A presentation on the infrastructure development projects was made to the visiting Malaysian delegation led by Deputy Prime Minister Dato' Mohd Najib Tun Abdul Razak yesterday, he added.

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