P&O Nedlloyd IT Services has decided to ramp up its operations in India by opening an office in Mumbai and expanding staff strength to about 1,300 by the middle of the year 2004.
The new office in Mumbai is slated to be formally inaugurated in the first week of April.
The company already has offices in Pune and Chennai, which employ around 870 people. The Mumbai office will initially employ 50 people and cater specifically to hazardous cargo.
The Indian unit provides back office services to the $4.5 billion global shipping major P&O Nedlloyd.
"The back office operations have been set up in India as a part of P&O Nedlloyd's global strategy of cutting down expenditure by about $350 million in the next three to four years," C S Anand, vice-president (operations), P&O Nedlloyd IT Services said.
"The reduction in costs through back office operations will be to the tune of about $50 to $75 million, and India is expected to be responsible for about 80 per cent of this," he added.
Back office operations offered by the company include data management, finance, accounting support services and documentation.
As of now, the Indian unit supports operations in the Middle-East, South Asia, North America and Europe.
The company is planning to migrate work for Asia-Pacific, Latin America and possibly Africa this year, and employee strength is expected to cross the 1000 mark.
P&O Nedlloyd has a similar back office in Shenzen, China, which caters to the Hong Kong and North Asian operations of the company.
P&O Nedlloyd is a 50:50 joint venture between UK-based P&O and Rotterdam-based Nedlloyd.
The sales, marketing and technical functions of the company are headquartered in London, while operations are handled from Rotterdam.
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