Infosys plans new campus, to add 8000

BANGALORE: Infosys Technologies Ltd., India's No. 2 software services exporter, is planning a new campus in Bangalore as it hires by the thousands to feed an outsourcing boom, officials said.

"Infosys has requested the government for 300 acres of land and we will consider it," said a spokesman for Dharam Singh, the chief minister of Karnataka.

Singh assured Infosys of providing the land at Yelahanka, a northern suburb, during a visit the company's facility on Wednesday, he said.

A spokeswoman for Infosys confirmed the request for new land.

Infosys added 10,000 people to its staff in nine months to December, and plans to hire at least 8000 in 2005.

The proposed campus will be in the vicinity of a new $280 million international airport being built by a private consortium led by Siemens Group.

Officials said Infosys would also be separately eligible for 50 acres of land in a proposed Hi Tech City project being developed by the government.

Forty-five percent of Infosys's more than 35,000 workers now function from the Electronics City suburb, whose congestion threw up questions on the future of Bangalore as an outsourcing hub powered by low-cost engineers and knowledge workers.

Azim Premji, chairman of Wipro, India's No.3 software firm, triggered a debate on Bangalore's future last year when he said his company would increasingly eye other locations in view of infrastructure problems in the city.