Infosys is a giant in infrastructure creation too

A company started by seven people 30 years ago from a small house bought on loan is today sitting on 2,085 acres of land across the globe. That's the enviable journey of Infosys Technologies Ltd in creating such a huge infrastructure for its employees.

What was a dream in 1992 has become an unbelievable journey for the Indian information technology giant. As the company's revenue keeps increasing each year its infrastructure creation has also multiplied.

The company has so far invested Rs 9,450 crore in infrastructure with a commitment of another Rs 2,500 crore in the next phase. As of March 31, Infosys has 28 m.sq ft of built-up space – equivalent to over 350 soccer fields – with a capacity to accommodate 1,23,000 seats.

The 2010-11 Infosys annual report provides some fascinating data on the kind of infrastructure it has created over the years for its 1,30,820 employees across the world.

Enough power

Take power for instance. As of fiscal 2011, Infosys has a power demand of 81 MW; diesel generating capacity of 134 MW; 48,000 tonnes of comfort air conditioning; UPS capacity of 45 MW, fresh water storage of 33 million litres; waste water treatment capacity of 16 million litres and diesel storage of 1,700 kilolitre.

There are 35 food courts capable of feeding 40,000 people in a single sitting and the company has training facilities of 25,000 seats. While it has 13,800 hostel rooms, Infosys also has a laundry capacity of 7.3 tonnes a day – not many companies would have such a facility.

Network

Infosys said it has network bandwidth of 6,700 mbps connecting over 1,50,000 desktops; 37,500 laptops and 5,500 servers globally.

Lot of parking

Till date, Infosys has created parking spaces for 9,500 cars and 15,300 two-wheelers in its Indian campuses for employees. Another seven multi-level parking lots are under construction for 13,800 cars and 15,500 two-wheelers to cater to the ever increasing employee strength.

Small start

However, 70 per cent of its employees still use public transport to commute to work “as a result of our sustained focus on encouraging mass transport,” the company said in the annual report.

In 1992, the Karnataka Government allocated four acres in the Electronics City in Bangalore to Infosys. It was a challenging terrain and poor accessibility and entailed a cost of Rs 17.22 crore when the company's revenue for fiscal 1992 was Rs 8.66 crore.

This did not deter the company with its IPO to raise funds for building the campus to have a built up space of 1,60,000 sq ft with a capacity to seat 1,000 people.

This campus was completed in eleven months and became the most visiting corporate campus in India with over 70 heads of state and global political leaders visiting it. Today, the campus has grown to 81 acres, a distributed low-rise campus of 4.2 mn sq ft of built up space; 26,850 seats and a 487-room hostel.

Till date, the company has invested Rs 1,830 crore in its Bangalore campus and it generates revenue to the tune of Rs 7,900 crore annually.

Infosys is building another 8.3 m.sqft with 40,000 seats. “Soon we are starting a $150-million campus in Shanghai for 8,000 seats,” the annual report says.

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