IT majors plan shifting to Tirupati

Tirupati: IT majors are pondering over the feasibility to start their operations from Tirupati as the pilgrim city has all the facilities they require to locate their enterprise in the light of major setback they suffered in Chennai due to the unprecedented rains and floods.

Making Tirupati as one of their operation centres will be beneficial in many ways to the firms and also their customers. The extended centres can be used as a backup facility – supplementing or substituting the services being provided from their main centres like Chennai or Bengaluru. Further, they can also strengthen their services in Andhra Pradesh, including the government, corporations like BSNL and state-run institutions like universities and also major religious institution TTD, the major clients of the IT firms like TCS and HCL for long, for their efficient functioning while dozens of national level institutions are coming up in the residuary state.

Interestingly, none of the IT majors though despite having a huge base of customers in the state has launched their operations from Tirupati, a potential IT hub. TTD and various universities are big time customers for them, said Tirupati IT Association secretary Vamsi Krishna.

Speaking to The Hans India, Vamsi Krishna said that Tirupati is the most ideal location for the IT majors to start their operations on many counts. It has got a huge skilled and efficient man power, he said sizable number of software personnel engaged in the leading IT firms in Chennai and Benguluru belong to Rayalaseema and Nellore district. Good number of engineering colleges in the region churn out graduates, every year, he added.

Further, the overhead charges and attrition rate will be very less in Tirupati which will be a huge advantage for the IT firms, if they locate their operations here, he explained. He further said that starting operation from Tirupati will also help the firms to expand their customer base in the new state witnessing flurry of activity with the capital city construction and dozens of national level educational, health institutions coming up.

Tirupati Chamber of Commerce president Manjunath said it is the right time the government takes the initiative to induce the IT firms start their operations from Tirupati which will boost up the development of not only Tirupati but five other district including Nellore, Prakasam. In other words nearly half of the state will be benefitted if the IT firms start operation from here, he opined.

All the facilities including manpower, infrastructure facilities etc. are readily available here he said citing the two incubation centres set up by the government and also small scale it firms functioning here besides Tirupati nearer to both Bengaluru and Chennai cities. This apart, he said the pilgrim city is well connected by air with the recent commissioning of international airport. It is also well connected by rail and road which is essential for any industry. Moreover, Chennai is not very far from this place so it would be easy for these IT majors to have back up operations from here, he added.