Building world-class infrastructure – realization of a dream

Today, Infosys is recognized globally as a company with one of the best infrastructure. It all started with a dream – of having our own campus in Bangalore. In 1992, the Karnataka government allocated four acres of land in Electronics City, Bangalore to us. It had a challenging terrain and poor accessibility and entailed a cost of 17.22 crore when our revenues for fiscal 1992 was only 8.66 crore. This didn't deter us and an IPO was floated to raise funds for building the campus. It was to have a built up area of 1,60,000 sq. ft., with a capacity to seat 1,000 people, low cost yet elegant, modern yet traditional. It was completed in 11 months, with Murthy overseeing the project himself. It soon became the most visited corporate campus in India, with over 70 heads of state and global political leaders visiting it. Today, the Bangalore campus has grown to 81 acres, a distributed low-rise campus of 4.2 million sq. ft. of built up space, 26,850 seats, large air-conditioning plants, a 2.5 MLD waste water recycling plant, a helipad, cricket, football and hockey grounds, a 487-room hostel, a 1,350-seater auditorium, an experience theatre, seven food courts, swimming pools, gyms, a bookstore, a convenience store, bank branches, a laundromat, ATMs, along with a multi-level parking lot for 1,600 cars and 1,750 two-wheelers and a bus station for 75 buses. It has redefined the way the IT industry operates in India. Our persistent efforts to improve infrastructure in our campus and connectivity to it have resulted in more than 75% of employees commuting to work by public transport. Till date, we have invested 1,830 crore in the infrastructure of the campus and it generates revenues to the tune of 7,900 crore annually.

In 1995, we decided to start an office in a smaller city and selected Mangalore as the first center outside Bangalore, attracted by the high educational standards of the city. In December 1995, we opened our Mangalore center and soon expanded it to 15,000 sq. ft., with 300 seats. In 1999, we bought a semi-built bus station at an auction from the government, refurbished it with 1,400 seats, and soon outgrew this too. In 2006, we purchased 325 acres of SEZ land on top of a beautiful, green hill overlooking the sea. Today, this has 6,27,000 sq. ft. of built-up space, with 3,350 seats, a food court and a hostel. Another 6,14,000 sq. ft. is under construction, with a capacity of 2,500 seats. We are creating a bio-park and have planted around 75,000 indigenous trees and built seven large artificial lakes for rainwater harvesting to make this a self-sustaining campus.

In 1996, as the company grew, we set up our operations in Pune. It was in a rented space with 450 seats. In 1998, we built a 25-acre campus with 4,300 seats. Outgrowing this, we acquired 114 acres in 2003 which, when completed, will have 6.5 million sq. ft. of built up space, seating 34,000 people. We experimented with interesting architecture, constructing large space frame buildings, a 15-level multistoried hostel with 1,000 rooms and large water harvesting reservoirs. We also built one of India's first all-steel, 11-level parking lot for 2,000 cars and 1,000 two-wheelers and a bus station.

Down south, we started our operations in Chennai at the same time as in Pune, and again in a rented place. In 2000, we started our own campus at Sholinganallur. This campus has a built up area of 5,00,000 sq. ft., with a seating capacity of 3,700. We added a second campus in a 129-acre space in Mahindra City SEZ. This campus today has 2.5 million sq. ft. of built-up area, with 16,000 seats, and a 1,000-room hostel. Another 3.9 million sq. ft. with 15,000 seats is under construction.

In 1999, we acquired 100 acres of land to build the Infosys Leadership Institute (ILI) and a software development building (SDB) in Mysore. What had started as a campus with an ILI building, a 96-room hostel, an SDB and two food courts, has today grown to be the largest Infosys campus, with a total area of 337 acres. We expanded our SDBs and soon decided to make Mysore the center for our global training by building the Global Education Center (GEC 1). In 2009, we built GEC 2, which is one of India's largest single buildings, a 1.02 million sq. ft. classical structure, with classrooms for training 9,200 employees at a single sitting, 300 faculty cabins, a large food court with 2,000 seats, a huge library, boardrooms, and a very large atrium, making it the largest corporate university in the world today.

Today our education infrastructure can train about 14,000 trainees at one sitting. It has a 10,100-room hostel and ten food courts. It also has induction rooms, a four-stage multiplex-cum auditorium area, an employee care center of 1,10,000 sq. ft., with a large swimming pool, indoor sports complex, convenience stores, a medical center, a cricket stadium, athletic tracks, a football ground, a climbing wall, India's largest laundry, and many other amenities. Overall, the campus has 9 million sq. ft. of built-up space with an investment of over 2,330 crore, and another 3 million sq. ft. is being planned. This campus also has large water and waste water treatment plants, power generation facilities and is a mini city in itself. We built eight artificial lakes to harvest rainwater, which has helped us meet 60% of our fresh water requirement in-house. We have planted over 40,000 trees, making it home to 63 species of birds and countless varieties of butterflies.

What was just a dream in 1992 has become an unbelievable journey with 28 million sq. ft. of built-up space and 1,23,000 seats as of March 31, 2011. We are currently building another 8.3 million sq. ft. with 40,000 seats.

After the initial occupation of rented premises in the High Tech city, we moved to our own 50-acre campus in Hyderabad in November 2001. This campus has 1.8 million sq. ft. of built-up space, with 10,000 seats. Further growth led us to start work on a 450-acre campus. We are building one of India's largest software development campuses, with the first phase of 2.9 million sq. ft. with 14,000 seats, built at an investment of 980 crore. With the addition of the second phase, it will have a total built-up area of 4.7 million sq. ft. and 25,000 employees, water harvesting facilities, innovative air-conditioning technology saving 30% of our energy consumption, and all buildings adhering to the highest LEED standards. With a verdant landscape, 70 species of birds, 66 species of butterflies, and 265 species of plants all carefully preserved, we propose to make this one of the greenest IT campuses.

In 1997, we expanded east to Bhubaneswar. The state government gave us a rented building meant for a government department. Soon we purchased a 46-acre plot for a new campus and occupied it in January 2001. Today, this campus can accommodate 4,000 employees. It also has innovative landscaping and green building exteriors making it visually appealing.

In Chandigarh, we outgrew our modest office in Mohali and purchased 30 acres of land in the SEZ for a new campus and occupied this in 2006. Today this has 1.1 million sq. ft. with 5,300 seats. We also have 200 acres in Jaipur currently, along with an Infosys BPO building with 3,500 seats. We will soon be commencing the construction of new buildings for the parent company in this campus.

In Thiruvananthapuram, we acquired 50 acres in January 2001 and we will be building one of the largest IT parks in Kerala. It has a unique architecture, with SDBs in the shape of ships and will have 2.4 million sq. ft. built-up area and seats for 10,000 employees once it is completed.

An incredible journey

What was just a dream in 1992 has become an unbelievable journey with 28 million sq. ft. of built-up space and 1,23,000 seats as of March 31, 2011. We are currently building another 8.3 million sq. ft. with 40,000 seats. Soon we are starting a US$ 150 million campus in Shanghai for 8,000 seats. We have invested 9,450 crore so far, with a commitment of another 2,500 crore to complete what we started. Our infrastructure needs are very large. As of fiscal 2011, we have a power demand of 81 MW, diesel generating capacity of 134 MW, 48,000 tons of comfort air conditioning, UPS capacity of 45 MW, fresh water storage of 33 million liters, waste water treatment capacity of 16 million liters, diesel storage of 1,700 KL, a laundry capacity of 7.3 tonnes per day, 35 food courts capable of feeding 40,000 people in a single sitting, training facilities of 25,000 seats, 13,800 hostel rooms, over 2,25,000 trees and 2,085 acres of land across the globe. We have a total network bandwidth of 6,700 Mbps connecting over 1,50,000 desktops, 37,500 laptops and 5,500 servers globally. Till date, we have created parking spaces for 9,500 cars and 15,300 two-wheelers in our Indian campuses for the comfort of our employees. Another seven multi-level parking lots are under construction for 13,800 cars and 15,500 two-wheelers to cater to our ever increasing employee strength. However, 70% of our employees still use public transport to commute to work as a result of our sustained focus on encouraging mass transport.

What started as a dream of a campus of 1,60,000 sq. ft. has grown into a mammoth network, built to the highest standards, within the shortest possible time, following the best environmental principles, with a per capita energy consumption of only 230 units per month.