Infosys, six others coming to Punjab

Thursday, 30/01/2014

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Infosys campus on 50 acres in Mohali to cost Rs 700 cr, provide 15,000 jobs

Chandigarh : Less than two months of the first-ever investment summit in Punjab, seven top IT companies, including Infosys, have fast-tracked moves to open shop in the border state, with the state government allotting 50 acres to Infosys, two acres each to three other and one acre each to another three IT firms in Mohali.

Speeding up procedures facilitating prospective investors to transform the agrarian state into an investment portal, the state bureaucracy, led by Chief Secretary Rakesh Singh, has left no stone unturned to realise the commitments worth Rs 65,000 crore, which Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal had clinched with industry captains at what was touted as the best-ever mega show in the country, held in Mohali on December 9 and 10.

The land has been allotted at the rate of around Rs 5 crore per acre in the upcoming IT City, spread over sprawling 1,700 acres in Mohali, a top officer told Daily Post here, on Wednesday. The allotments have been made from a chunk of 400 acres earmarked for the IT/ITES industry in Sector 82.

Infosys, as per its project plan, will set up its campus at the cost of about Rs 700 crore here, with a potential of providing 15,000 jobs within three years. Similarly, other IT houses will also establish their respective campuses with an investment of several hundred crores of rupees. “All the allottees have started working on blueprints and very shortly, work on their projects will start with the formal foundation stone laying ceremonies taking place, hopefully next month,” the officer disclosed.

To facilitate 41 other IT companies, who have evinced interest in setting up their base in Mohali, top officers are meeting here on Friday to finalise allotment of land and other nitty-gritty pertaining to their projects. “We are poised to clear the formalities within minimum possible time,” said the officer, adding that investment promotion figures on state government’s top of the agenda.

Fired with the zeal to restore Punjab’s glory, the CEO of Progressive Punjab Inc has already announced the decision to develop Mohali as the biggest IT destination in the country.

“Our aim is to provide 2 to 3 lakh IT jobs in Punjab within the next three years,” vowed Sukhbir, while declaring that work on most of the big-ticket projects committed at the Investors Summit would get underway within 6 months.