TCS plans to start construction of Nagpur centre
The Economic Times — August 14, 2007

Asia's largest IT company Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) would start construction of its BPO centre in Nagpur by December-January, a top company official said.

"We have recently signed an agreement to develop the centre at Nagpur and we hope to receive necessary approvals. The target date for starting construction is by end of year," TCS CEO and managing director S Ramadorai told reporters.

TCS had entered into an agreement with Tata Realty And Infrastructure (TRIL) to develop properties on land owned or to be owned by TCS.

The MoU covers eight properties located in Pune, Thiruvananthapuram, Kochi, Ahmedabad, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Nagpur and Mangalore, totalling approximately 380 acres of land.

The Nagpur BPO will have a capacity of 5,000 people and the operations from the premises should start within 18 months from the date of construction, he said.

"It should take 18 months to start operations from our premises but we could start working from a leased space before it," Ramadorai said. On restrictions on external commercial borrowings (ECBs), Ramadorai said that the volatility in rupee versus dollar was now behind us.

"We are focusing on hedging forward contracts, increasing productivity gains and dealing in multiple currencies but if rupee appreciates beyond a point it will have an impact," he said.

Ramadorai again flagged the issue of the US sub-prime mortgage crisis which could lead to the weakening of dollar versus the rupee.