Google to set up Campus in Hyderabad

Google Inc. will build its biggest campus outside the US in Hyderabad at an investment of Rs.1,000 crore. The 2 million square feet facility, the Internet giant’s first company-owned campus in Asia, will house 13,000 employees when it is ready in 2019.
Telangana information minister K.T. Rama Rao, who is on an official visit to the US, signed the agreement with Google Inc. at its headquarters at Mountain View, California, under which the state government will allocate the company 7.2 acres in Hyderabad’s Gachibowli locality.
Google currently operates out of a leased facility in Kondapur locality in the city and employs about 7,000 people. Once the new campus is completed, Google’s Hyderabad headcount will nearly double.
Google has over 70 offices in 40 countries, including four in India: Bengaluru, Mumbai, Gurgaon and Hyderabad.
Gachibowli is also home to the offices of Microsoft, Cap Gemini SA, CA Inc., Infosys Ltd, Wipro Ltd and Deloitte among others.
After 12 months of planning, construction of the facility will start in 2016, said David Radcliffe, Google’s global head for facilities and workplaces, who signed the agreement on Google’s behalf, said in a statement. It will take two-and-a-half years for the facility to be completed.
Google was earlier allocated about 20 acres at Kokapet in 2007 but the project failed to take off due to legal hurdles. The government then assigned another piece of land at Raidurg locality in 2013 but this too didn’t take off.
After coming to power, the Telangana government has been trying to showcase Hyderabad as an investor-friendly destination.
Online retailer Amazon Inc. last month unveiled plans to open its biggest fulfilment centre on Hyderabad’s outskirts. Google has also agreed to a verbal request from Rama Rao to begin implementing Street View feature (of Google Maps) in India from Hyderabad.
The company is awaiting approval from the Union home ministry to roll out the feature in Indian towns and cities although it’s available at some tourist sites such as Taj Mahal and Qutub Minar. Street View allows users to have horizontal view of a street rather than a bird’s eye view that’s currently possible with Google Maps.
Rama Rao discussed the government’s plans to provide fiber optic network connectivity to homes in Telangana in the same ductlines as a state-wide water grid project.