Hectic efforts by the Andhra Pradesh Government seemed to have paid off with the IT major Infosys Technologies deciding to set up its largest yet campus spread over 550 acres at Mamidipally near the international airport coming up at Shamshabad.

The IT major plans to invest Rs. 1,250 crore on building about three lakh square feet campus with an intake capacity of 25,000 employees. The present campus of Infosys at Gachibowli already employs about 5,000 people involving an investment of Rs. 275 crore and the company plans to scale it up by investing Rs. 225 crore by December-end to achieve a capacity of Rs. 2,000-crore exports against the Rs. 800 crore at present.

The first phase of the new campus would be developed on a 150-acre plot with an investment of Rs. 450 crore and Rs. 400 crore each in the subsequent two phases. The State Government has inked a Memorandum of Understanding with Infosys Technologies in the presence of Chief Minister Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy and Infosys Chairman and chief mentor N.R. Narayana Murthy here on Monday.

As part of the MoU, the State Government said that the proposed land for the first phase had already been identified while the process for the remaining chunk would be completed in the near future. "We have the entire amount with us. It is only a matter of searching the appropriate talent," Infosys chief financial officer T.V. Mohandas Pai said.

Speaking at a meeting convened on the occasion, he wanted the State to develop the area surrounding the new campus as a notified area. The new IT city should accommodate 2,00,000 people who live and work there and the Government should design its plans for an investment of Rs. 20,000 crore in the area which could achieve the capability of $5 billion (about Rs. 25,000 crore) exports.

Whitefield Paper Mills Ltd is going to set up its new venture at Kovvuru [Sy.No.32,Bayyaram (V) H/o Tadipudi, Tallapudi (M) west Godavari dist] with an investment of Rs.1200 Cr. All of the promoters of this paper mill are Andhrites. One thousand people directly and 10000 personnel indirectly will find employment by setting up this mill, which is going to produce 200 thousand tons of writing & printing paper per annum.

On March27, 2006 a Memorandum of Understanding has been signed in presence of Chief Minister Dr.Y.S.Raja Sekhar Reddy at Hyderabad. State Minister for Major Industries Dr. Mrs. Gita Reddy, Whitefield Papers Chairman T.Srinivasa Rao, Managing Director M.T.Srinivasa Rao, Technical Advisor V.Chakrapani and others attended the program. Dr. Y.S.Raja Sekhar Reddy announced that Government is going to allot land of 500 acres in two phases, for this project.

"There are two interesting things in this project; first is, the investors belong to Andhra Pradesh and second is, the raw material required (pulp) will be imported from Sweden. 60% of the product will be exported back to foreign countries,"he added.

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