HYDERABAD: Qualcomm, a semiconductor and wireless technology company headquartered in the United States, is constructing a 1.6 million square feet -mega facility in Hyderabad. This will be Telangana's largest SEZ leasing contract and Qualcomm's largest facility in India.

According to the Visakhapatnam Special Economic Zone (VSEZ), the Qualcomm facility, which will be housed on 17 floors at the Sustain Properties Pvt Ltd SEZ in Raidurg being built by the K Raheja Group will cost Rs 3,904 crore and create around 8,700 jobs over the next five years. At a recent meeting, the unit approval committee of VSEZ gave their approval to the project. VSEZ covers all SEZs in Telangana.

Over the next five years, the mega SEZ facility is expected to generate IT services exports worth Rs 28,658 crore, according to the report.

Qualcomm will begin taking ownership of four storeys at the SEZ in September and gradually increase its footprint, with the facility scheduled to be fully operational by September 2022, according to VSEZ growth commissioner A Rama Mohan Reddy.

With a $400 million investment, the organization intended to construct its own campus. The agreement was first announced in October 2018 by Telangana's IT and Industries minister KT Rama Rao's office, but the campus plan was reportedly scrapped after the land for the project was discovered to be disputed.

Following this, sources claim that the US conglomerate has agreed to lease a facility in the capital, where it already has a few facilities in the upcoming SEZ facility that will further consolidate its position here.