The cost of the area for which the deal has been signed is about Rs 13,32,000.

According to Mahindra British Telecom managing director (MD), VM Bhatt, "The bigger area will be useful for the larger manpower the company will seek to employ in the near future. We see 60 per cent growth in our business to reach a turnover of about Rs 95 crore in the next one year and we are hoping to double the man years of work. From 560 engineers, Mahindra British plans to increase its rolls to about 1,500 with emphasis on offshore projects for British Telecom, Air Tel, etc." Oberoi Developers sources said: "Our office premises at Andheri satisfies the rules and regulations of designated software-technology parks and about 70,000 square feetwill be acquired by Mahindra Brotosh both on outright purchases and rentals. The Oberoi Estate Complex is about 600,000 square feet."

Bhatt claims the company's turnover is about 95 crore and it expects 60 per cent growth. "We have already set up a development centre at Andheri to achieve the target," says Bhatt. "A number of overseas projects required the company to acquire this additional space," he adds.

Mahindra British Telecom is a 50:50 joint venture between Mahindra & Mahindra and British Telecom. The latter is a global supplier with an annual turnover of Rs 90,000 crore. The company's local presence is managed through its office network and joint ventures across India.

Mahindra British Telecom, apart from other advanced and updated software- engineering businesses, is also into millennium-related software.

These include, among others, Year 2000 projects for a large mission, critical applications based on IDMS, DB2, Oracle, Internet-based solutions, database engineering, data warehousing, datamining and software verification & validation.