MUMBAI: HCL Technologies has announced that it has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the Maharashtra Government towards allotment of 170 acres in the MIHAN Special Economic Zone (SEZ) at Nagpur for setting up a campus.

Of the 170 acres, 140 acres will be processing area and 30 acres will cover the residential area to house the employees as HCL plans to have an integrated campus. The company intends to make its Nagpur campus operational within three years and will be generating direct employment for about 10,000 people within five years of going operational.

Speaking to The Hindu, Prem Asija, Senior Vice-President-Corporate, HCL Technologies, said, "The Nagpur campus will become operational by end-2009. We will be investing Rs. 500 crore for the first phase of the project (including land cost of around Rs. 100 crore), which will be completed in five years. Details for the second phase will be taken up at a later stage."

Shiv Nadar, Chairman and CEO, HCL Technologies, said in a statement that, "we are delighted to set up our base at Nagpur and work with the Maharashtra Government. Currently, we have our development centres in NCR (National Capital Region), Chennai and Bangalore and this will be our first centre outside the big cities."

HCL is looking at setting up additional campuses in Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and Tier 2 cities.

According to Mr. Asija, "we are in discussions with the Tamil Nadu government for Tier 2 cities and are looking at a couple of options outside of Chennai.

Talks are also on with the Andhra Pradesh government for setting up a campus around Hyderabad or Visakhapatnam.

In the north, we are already present in Noida-Gurgaon and are in discussions with the governments of Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and Uttarkhand to set up a campus in any one of the states."

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