Hinduja TMT Ltd, the information technology (IT) flagship of the multi-billion-dollar Hinduja Group, has decided to set up a business process outsourcing (BPO) and a software services centre in the city.

A two-man team, comprising managing director and chief executive officer K. Thiagirajan and chief operating officer Partha Sarkar, was in town on Friday to finalise the company?s plans for Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee?s Bengal.

?The decision on Calcutta has already been taken and we will kick off operations in the city with a 300-seater BPO centre from a rented space. But we also have plans to set up a campus here, with 1,500-plus capacity, and use the talent pool to develop high-end software,? said Thiagirajan.

Ashok Hinduja, the company?s chairman, had met the chief minister earlier this month and expressed interest in exploring business opportunities in Bengal.

As a follow-up measure, the Hinduja TMT team called on IT minister Manab Mukherjee and IT secretary G.D. Gautama on Friday.

?We are looking at an investment of around $5 million to set up our own facility over the next five years,? said Thiagirajan, who has already requisitioned for around five to six acres of land at ?a fair price?. According to Hinduja TMT officials, everything is fine with Calcutta, ?except for the price of land?.

Though he did not give any exact time-line for Calcutta, Thiagirajan indicated that the BPO unit would be operational by the end of the year.

In search of built-up space of around 30,000 sq ft, the team visited facilities like Infinity, Millennium and Bengal Intelligent Park in the Salt Lake Electronics Complex (Saltlec). The duo also went to Rajarhat to check out the status of work in progress at the DLF facility in New Town.

?As business is growing, we are keen to expand operations and ramp up the headcount by another 1,000 in the next two months,? indicated Thiagirajan.

The company, which closed last year with a revenue of over $ 60 million and has a market capitalisation of over $ 350 million, employs around 4,700 people across its delivery centres in Bangalore, Mumbai, Hyderabad, Manila, Toronto and New Jersey.

?Hinduja TMT is among the top five BPO companies in the country. It?s interest in Calcutta is a positive development and we will try our best to give them a good deal,? promised Gautama.