TCS seeks 100 acres in Bangalore to set up campus

BANGALORE - India’s top IT bellwether Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) has approached the Karnataka government for 100 acres of land near Bangalore international airport to set up a huge campus in this tech hub, a senior official said Tuesday.

“TCS has approached the state government to allot 100 acres of land to set up its largest campus in the proposed IT Park at Devanahalli near the airport. We have agreed to consider the application,” state Principal Secretary, Commerce and Industry V.P. Baligar told reporters here.

A team of senior officials of the Tata group headed by Tata Steel vice-chairman B. Muthuraman met Chief Minister B.S. Yeddyurappa to discuss the status of investment proposals group companies made during the global investors’ meet here early June.

“Land acquisition for setting up Tata Metaliks’ Rs.15,000-crore steel plant with three million tonnes per annum capacity at Haveri in central Karnataka is progressing without a hitch,” Baligar said.

The state government has also agreed to allot five acres of land to Tata Consulting Engineers (TCE) for its project and similar land for setting up its “Ginger” brand budget hotels at Belgaum and Hubli in north Karnataka.

“Tata Housing has also sought land for its various projects. We have assured the company to allot land in industrial areas across the state,” Baligar noted.

Tata Power is one of the bidders for a power project at Bidadi, about 40 km from the city.

Tata Elxsi, a product design and IT services firm, is planning to expand its Bangalore campus, while Tata Realty has bid for the proposed monorail and high-speed rail link projects in the city.

“We have already submitted our investment proposals to the state government and met the chief minister to review their status as we have lined up several projects across the state,” Muthuraman noted.

On refinancing $5.4 billion debt raised to partly fund the acquisition of the British steel major Corus, the vice-chairman said the company (Tata Steel) was negotiating with banks and a decision would be taken later this week,” Muthuraman added.

Tata Steel bought Corus for $12.9 billion in 2007.