Kolkata: Descon Ltd on Saturday (Sep 11, 2004) announced a tie-up with US-based TeleSynergy Reserach Inc to set up a 500-seat call centre in Kolkata to provide employment to over 2,500 persons.

The call centre would be initially doing jobs on behalf of Chunghwa Telecom, a Taiwan-based Fortune 500 company, TeleSynergy Chief Operating Officer (COO) James Y Kou told reporters at a joint press conference.

"We hope to start the first phase of operation within the next two-and-a-half months with 100 seats working in two shifts of six hours each," Director and Chief Executive of Descon, S Radhakrishnan said.

He said that all the 500 seats would be in operation by the end of next year. "We are also exploring possibilities to set up a call centre training academy."

Explaining the reason for setting up the centre in Kolkata, Kou said it was primarily because of the city's emergence as a suitable alternative to Bangalore.

To a query, the COO said the total investment at the Kolkata centre would be about five million US dollars, but initial investment would be in the region of $1 million.

"We have not yet decided on the shareholding pattern between us and Descon, but it will be between 40 per cent and 50 per cent," he said.

TeleSynergy is also setting up call centres in Cochin and Ahmedabad and would be investing over $14 m in the next one-and-a-half years. "We are setting up a 500 seat centre in Cochin of which 50 seats have already started and two others in Ahmedabad with a total 700 seats," he said.