Exactly a year after facing the threat of cancellation of land allotment, Wipro is getting ready to launch its Visakhapatnam campus at Resapuvanipalem near NH 5 sometime in September.
The company has invited Union Minister of State for Human Resource Development D. Purandeswari to inaugurate the campus, the second after Hyderabad, in the State.
An aide of Ms. Purandeswari said the Minister would soon finalise the date between September 15 and 25.
Wipro has promised to launch its operations with 100 persons.
Staff strength would be increased to 300 in two months, a Wipro official told Minister. Later, job opportunities would be created for more in phases.
Notice
The company was served a notice by the AP Industrial Infrastructure Corporation for cancellation of land due to inordinate delay in launching operations in the city.
Stone was laid for the Visakhapatnam campus on May 12, 2006, when Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy was the Chief Minister. At that time, the company officials said it would launch operations initially with 750 employees and go up to 5,000 employees in five years.
The Wipro management failed to keep its promise because of recession in the IT industry following global meltdown. It was allotted seven acres belonging to the erstwhile TB Hospital amid lot of protest along with Satyam (Now Mahindra Satyam).
Mahindra Satyam, which was the first major IT firm to set up its campus in the city after HSBC, is in expansion mode.
“It’s a good news that Wipro is beginning its operations now though it has failed to keep its promise to make the campus full-fledged within five years of laying the foundation stone,” a member of the Visakhapatnam IT Association (VITA) said.