Hyderabad to be home to giant Google campus

Google has entered into an agreement with the Telangana government for setting up one of the largest campuses outside the US and its first ever own campus in the country. The global head for Google Facilities and Workplaces, David Radcliffe, and Telangana minister for information technology KT Rama Rao signed the deal during a meeting at the Google headquarters in Mountain View, California.

As per the MoU, Google has been allocated 7.2 acres in Gachibowli, the main IT corridor in Hyderabad where Google will build its own facility. This facility for Google in Hyderabad, when fully built, will be one of the largest facilities globally with a built-up space of about 2 million sq ft, a release from the government said.

The facility in Hyderabad will be Google’s first fully owned campus in India and is expected to house thousands of employees given its huge built-up area. Google expects the facility to be complete and fully operational in about four years and is supposed to start operations before the summer of 2019.

About 12 months will be spent on planning and the construction work is supposed to start around the summer of 2016, and should take about two and a half years, according to Google.

Hyderabad may also become the first Indian city to get covered fully under the company’s Street View.

The minister met with the Google Street View team of Manik Gupta, director of product management, and Narayana Tummala, ground truth engineering lead for Google.

While Street View has been extensively used in the US, Canada and many European countries, its applications in India have been limited so far. Google has launched Street View in some tourist sites like the Taj Mahal, Qutub Minar, etc, in partnership with the Archaeological Survey of India. The Street View was also brought into the National Gallery of Modern art in India with a very high-resolution imagery.

Google is in talks with the ministry of home affairs for permissions to conduct the Street View exercise at a city level.

This permission is expected to be given shortly. Upon the request made by the minister, Google has agreed to make Telangana the first state that will get Street View covering an entire city.

Google has also agreed to support specific requests made by the minister to utilise Street View for monitoring of deviations from approved building plans, property tax collection, mapping of industrial land banks located in different parts of the state, to name a few.

Rao also had a meeting with Bram Bout, director of Google Education, Rajen Sheth, senior director of product management for Android and Chrome for work and education. The IT minister wanted Google to associate with the state government to support the ambitious Digital Telangana programme, particularly the component that intends to promote digital literacy among school children.

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* Google allocated 7.2 acres in main IT corridor Gachibowli
* To be one of the largest facilities globally
* Built-up area of about 2 million sq ft
* Will be Google’s first fully-owned campus in India
* Hyderabad may also be first Indian city to get full Street View coverage