Mumbai-based IT applications firm Mastek Ltd on Wednesday signed an agreement to acquire 15.5 acres of land at the Mahindra City industrial park, on the outskirts of Chennai, for setting up its first software development centre outside Maharashtra.
The Chennai development centre would become Mastek's biggest facility and is expected to become operational in the 2007-08 financial year, said Ashank Desai, its chairman, after signing the MoU with Arun Nanda, executive director, Mahindra & Mahindra.
"It will be Mastek's biggest facility till date and we are very excited about coming to Chennai," he said, adding that the Chennai facility will be its sixth development centre in the country. Currently, Mastek has five development centres, four in Mumbai and one in Pune.
On selecting Chennai for its expansion plans, Desai said the city was chosen primarily because of its manpower availability, besides the cost and infrastructure. "The talent pool here is just apt considering the complex and mission critical nature of projects Mastek works on," he said.
Nanda said there were 30 engineering colleges located near the industrial park.
Desai refused to comment on the proposed investments or the number of people to be employed in Chennai.
"Mastek has grown to over 2,700 employees and we are steadily increasing in numbers. We need infrastructure which will grow with our aspirations and the Chennai centre is in line with our growth strategy," he said.
Nanda said an acre in the 1400-acre Mahindra City was sold at an average rate of Rs 32 lakh (Rs 3.2 million).
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