Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M Karunanidhi visited the Infosys and Wipro campuses seeking more investments.
Karunanidhi, accompanied by Union Telecom and IT Minister Dayanidhi Maran, visited the headquarters of Wipro and the Nasdaq-listed Infosys and held discussions with top officials of the two firms.
Asked if he sought more investment from Wipro, where he met its chairman Azim Premji, he said, "That's why I have come here".
Infosys director, Human Resources, T V Mohandas Pai, said the company's largest campus (125 acres) is coming up at Mahindra City in Chennai.
"We have told the (Tamil Nadu) government that we will have 25,000 jobs in Mahindra City in the next three-four years. We already have about 3,500 people working there. This year, we will hire 5,000 people in Tamil Nadu," he said.
Pai said the company has committed to invest Rs 1,250 crore to expand its Chennai operations. "This year, we will have invested Rs 350 crore (in Chennai) by the end of the year".
Maran said that the Chief Minister, who also holds the IT portfolio, wanted to personally look at the way both companies 'have changed Bangalore' and requested the two firms to invest more in Tamil Nadu and also look at Tier-II cities - Madurai, Coimbatore, Trichy and Tirunelveli - to start operations.
Karunanidhi promised that he would give all support and help them to speed up their projects, "which are going through some hurdles," according to Maran.
"They (Wipro and Infosys) have given a positive response and will definitely consider it (expanding operations in Tamil Nadu and look at tier-II cities)", he said.
Karunanidhi, who was also accompanied by the state's Industry Secretary Shaktikant Das and IT Secretary C Chandramouli, wanted to come to Bangalore and visit IT
facilities "so that when he has got a lot of plans to develop Tamil Nadu (in the IT sector), he wants to develop the state similarly and in fact, better than this (Bangalore)", the Union Minister said.
Tamil Nadu is evaluating the feasibility of setting up an IT park in Hosur, some 40 km from Bangalore, to see whether the state would be able to attract IT investment, state government officials said.
Asked if other cities are growing faster than Bangalore in the IT sector, Pai said, "Yes, Chennai is growing faster, Hyderabad is growing faster. Chennai has great scope."
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