Infosys City — The largest software campus on Planet Earth

The existing buildings also form a part of the Infosys City (situated in Electronics City on Hosur Road) and was inaugurated on Tuesday. The 12 new buildings (all buildings are numbered) are spread over an area of 740,000 sq ft.

Clarence Chandran, Chief Operating Officer of Nortel Networks, inaugurated the City by formally `switching on’ the lights of the campus. Chief Minister S M Krishna presided over the inaugural.

Set up at a cost of Rs 320 crore, the City includes a customer care centre with eight conference halls and the video wall.

Here’s more – hold your breath.

An education and research centre that can train 1,000 software engineers at one go. It comprises fully-equipped classrooms and labs with video-conferencing units. A glass-paneled building – the `Rotunda’ that has individual rooms for the faculty. A 30,000 sq ft library with natural lighting, two-storey reading arena and a capacity for 10,000 books. Besides, a management development training centre is under construction.

Nortel Networks will build its Wireless Centre for Excellence in India at the campus, an e-commerce research centre with 650 people working on research in wireless internet capabilities.

Architecturally, the City has its highs too – a `hyperbolic parabola’ for a canteen that feeds `Infoscions’ (as they call themselves) MTR food. And there are food courts that serve Chinese, North Indian and South Inian dishes – three `shells’ at the corners of the campus, each supported by four pillars. No wonder then that all the architects and designers of the city were honoured by the Chief Minister on the occasion.

It doesn’t end here. The City is fed by its own outlets of Domino’s Pizza, Ammu’s Kitchen and they have home-made ice-cream outlets too.

And a state-of-the-art gym, pool tables, TT tables, dance floor that have already come up. The sauna, grocery store, an Infosys Store, 50,000 sq ft swimming pool and a lake with paddling boats will soon be part of the City to entertain `Infoscions’.

And to make their way around their City, employees have buses, golf carts and bicycles. And when it rains, employees can `please pick up umbrellas’ kept at the entrance of every building.

The eco-friendly campus has 3,500 trees at present and there will be another 2,500 more when the City is complete. The landscape includes laid out stone paths, rose beds, bamboo clusters with benches beneath them, fountains, water recycling plants… the works!

Infosys Chairman N R Narayana Murthy was given a standing ovation by the entire gathering, prompted by Krishna’s statement that he salutes him on behalf of the State Government. Over 4,000 visitors had gathered on Tuesday – families of employees and business visitors.

Chief Minister S M Krishna was all praise for Narayan Murthy. “Who is not proud of Infosys? You thrive on competition.” Krishna said when he first visited Infosys, he was ignorant of IT and Infosys. “If my bureaucrats give me 100 reasons why I shouldn’t meet men like Narayan Murthy, I can give 1,000 reasons why I should,” he said. During the last 380 days of his governance, he said, he had tried to drive home a message that “we are here to learn”. Lauding Murthy’s contributions, he said “Such people can educate a Chief Minister and an entire Government.”

Murthy said he believed that world class companies would be the temples of India. “Speed and imagination will help us.”

Other guests at the inaugural included – R V Deshpande, Minister for Small and Medium Industries, L Revanasiddaiah, Inspector General (Prisons), Educationist H Narasimhaiah and former BCC Commissioner K Jairaj.

The inaugural was capped off with fireworks and a dance performance by Shiamak Davar and team.