HCL to invest Rs 1,000 crore in setting up development centers in Andhra Pradesh

IT Services company HCL Technologies is now looking forward to setting up one of its largest development centres in Andhra Pradesh. This move involves an investment of over Rs 1,000 crore. The company is on the verge of signing an agreement with the Andhra Pradesh government to build its development centre close to proposed Greenfield capital city Amaravati.

One of the officials confirmed that talks with HCL Technologies are at an advanced stage. "This will be the first large investment by an IT giant to help Chandrababu Naidu's dream to recreate Cyberabad in residual Andhra Pradesh," he said.

"Talks have been on for a while, but there is no official confirmation or sign-off yet," said a person aware of the discussions. The proposed development centre, one of the largest facilities of HCL Technologies globally, will come up on over 30 acres of land near Amaravati in two phases, where the first phase will take off in a year or so," said another official, requesting anonymity.

For starters, Naidu, who headed undivided Andhra Pradesh as its chief minister during 1995-2004 succeeded in attracting technology giants including Microsoft, Oracle, IBM, Dell, Deloitte, Infosys, TCS and Wipro among others to set up development centres in Hyderabad.

HCL Technologies has been expanding its footprint in tier-2 cities since the past few years. The first phase of a 100-acre IT city in Lucknow, which involves an investment of nearly Rs 1,500 crore, became operational last year.

The investment proposal of HCL Technologies is expected to come up before the ensuing meeting of the state investment promotion board (SIPB) for its approval.