MC EXCLUSIVE Cognizant to get land for less than a rupee to set up Rs 1,500-crore campus in Visakhapatnam

The company has set a target of March 2029 for the commencement of commercial operations.

Cognizant Technology Solutions will invest Rs 1,582 crore to build an IT campus in Visakhapatnam after getting land for just 99 paisa from the Andhra Pradesh government, sources have told Moneycontrol.

The investment is expected to create 8,000 jobs over a period of eight years, sources said.

“Cognizant has sought 21.31 acres of land at Kapulauppada under the Visakhapatnam Metropolitan Region Development Authority (VMRDA), and the state government would allot the land for a nominal rate of just 99 paisa,” one of the sources cited above said.

The investment comes as Visakhapatnam is looking to emerge as rising IT hub. Chief minister Chandrababu Naidu of several occasion has shared his vision to make Visakhapatnam Andhra’s economic capital.

Cognizant has set March 2029 target for the commencement of commercial operations.

In January, Andhra’s information technology and human resources Minister Nara Lokesh had hinted at the possibility of Cognizant launching operations in the state.

During his visit to Davos for the World Economic Forum (WEF), Lokesh met Cognizant’s chief executive officer S Ravi Kumar and urged him to consider setting up operations in tier-2 cities such as Visakhapatnam.