Cognizant to expand its Chennai operations

IT major Cognizant Technology Solutions is aggressively expanding out of
Chennai. To this end, the company will be building a state of the art 2,00,000
sq. ft techno complex in Siruseri that will become operational in a phased
manner by end of this year. In addition, the company has also acquired six-acres
of land adjacent to its existing techno-complex in Thoraipakkam near Chennai
where it would build a 1,50,000-sq. ft. development facility that will be
operational by December 2005. Both the facilities will accommodate 3,500
professionals.The Siru-seri facility would also house a dedicated training arm
of the company-Cognizant Aca-demy spread over 1,00,000 sq ft consisting of 75
classrooms to train around 1,800 profe-ssionals simultaneously. This facility
would sport campus style architecture. All these expansion plans will cost the
company Rs 115 crore.

Speaking at a select media gathering, Lakshmi Nara-yanan, President and CEO
of Cognizant said, "At present we have significant amount of work being
executed out of our Chennai facilities and ramping up further here is the best
option for us. Business wise things have been very good and we have made a rev-enue
guidance of $845 million for calendar year 2005".

Meanwhile, the company is also evaluating Coimbatore as its next development
center in India. It is currently looking at various lease options and plans to
set up a 40,000-sq ft facility with 400 employees out of Coimbatore. Quipped
Narayanan, "We will be execu-ting application maintenance, testing and IT
infrastructure services from the proposed Coimbatore center."

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