Infosys to invest Rs 1,400 cr in Noida campus

Information technology services major Infosys plans to invest Rs 1,400 crore (Rs 14 billion) in a campus proposed to be built on 28 acres in Noida, Uttar Pradesh.

The project is estimated to generate 35,000 direct and indirect jobs.

On Tuesday evening, an Uttar Pradesh cabinet meeting chaired by Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav waived stamp duty on the land purchased by Infosys for the campus.

The company will, however, have to provide a bank guarantee equivalent to the exempted stamp duty, about Rs 11.65 crore (Rs 116.5 million).

The stamp duty is 8.5 per cent of the land value which; in this case, it is Rs 137 crore (Rs 1.37 billion).

For the campus, the company is seeking a floor area ratio (FAR, or the ratio of a building’s total floor area to the size of the land it is built on), of three, against the currently permitted ratio of two.

In the proposed campus, Infosys aims to develop eight blocks.

A higher FAR will need the state cabinet’s approval.

Sources said a cabinet note on the issue had been readied.

Infosys was allotted land for the campus in sector 85, Noida, on January 31 this year.

For projects involving investments of more than Rs 100 crore (Rs 1 billion), Noida Authority could allot land directly, Navneet Sehgal, Uttar Pradesh principal secretary (information), told Business Standard.

The project will comprise a research and development and software development centre, besides special economic zone components.

The company aims to complete 40 per cent of the project in the next three years, by when it will begin the core functions of the project.

Company officials and architects have already started surveying the land.

Sources said for its proposed campus, Infosys had hired a US-based architect.

Another IT services company, HCL Technologies, is developing an IT city in Lucknow, under the public private partnership mode.

For this, the company has committed an investment of Rs 1,500 crore (Rs 15 billion) through the next 10 years.