Most Satyam offices in Hyderabad to be vacated

Hyderabad: Shutters are coming down on more Satyam offices in the city soon. According to sources in the company, the scam-hit IT firm is planning to close down operations in more offices that had been taken on lease by the company. While senior Satyam officials confirm the closure plans of the Mayfair Centre premises in the next few weeks, some associates say that the Ohri Towers office might also follow suit soon.

Around 200 associates work out of the Mayfair Centre, while 400 employees are stationed at the Ohri Towers office of Satyam.

With the company going through its worst ever financial crisis, the reason behind this scaling down exercise is to save on the huge amount of money that was being spent on rent by the firm over the last many years. “This consolidation of space will help us save Rs 100 crore and more,” said a senior official of Satyam adding that, “The office (Mayfair Centre) anyway does not have too many associates and is an old building and, therefore, is not of much use to the company.” The official further said that notice has already been served to the owner of the building and the process of vacating it will commence soon. Following B Ramalinga Raju’s confession to the Rs 7,000 crore fraud, the Mayfair Centre office, which is the registered office of Satyam in the city, was raided by investigating agencies.

Last month, Satyam had vacated the three floors it occupied at the Lakeshore Towers in Somajiguda and was in the process of clearing out its Karkhana premises too. Several associates working at the Karkhana office now confirm the receipt of an official communication asking them to report to duty at the Bahadurpally branch of Satyam with immediate effect. Employees stationed at Mayfair Centre too expect to be shifted to the Bahadurpally office.

Before the closure of its Somajiguda office Satyam had 14 working units in the city.

Considering that the Bahadurpally office, popularly known as the Satyam Technology Centre (STC) which is also the global headquarters of the IT firm, is the only other building owned by Satyam, apart from the Info City office in Madhapur, associates fear that operations from all other offices taken on lease might be eventually withdrawn and associates would end up working only out of two buildings. “It is clear that the company is not in a position to pay rents and, hence, is shutting down one city office after another. We have to wait and watch as to what happens finally,” said a worried Satyamite who has been asked to shift premises recently.

However, denying that there is any cause for worry senior Satyam officials say that the premises housing project works and other important operations of the company will not be touched and business will continue as usual there. “For instance, we are vacating the Karkhana office only because there was not much work happening there. We had only stationed the business wait (employees on bench) associates in that building. But the company definitely has no plans of shutting down operations in a building where associates are working on projects,” the official said.

Courtesy: TOI