GOING with the existing trend in the IT industry where companies like IBM and Infosys have chosen locations in South-East Asia to set up development centres, Tech Mahindra is also taking the plunge. Tech Mahindra, continuing its expansion within India and overseas, is looking at East Europe, Latin America and the Philippines for setting up new software development centres. Tech Mahindra has recently set up its software development centres in the UK at Milton Keynes and at Belfast in Northern Ireland. "If development costs go up here we will naturally look at avenues abroad. However, at this juncture, there is nothing in the offing," said Tech Mahindra VC& MD, Vineet Nayyar. With Rs 200 crore worth investment slated to come up in the Rajiv Gandhi Chandigarh Technology Park(RGCTP) in the Tech Mahindra campus alone over the next 2-3 years, Tech Mahindra has a reason to smile. The company has witnessed a phenomenal growth in the past 2-3 years with turnover in the first half of 2007-08 zooming past $431.7 million as against $270 million in the previous corresponding period. During 2006-07, the company had achieved a turnover of $648 million as against $280 million in the previous year. With a defined presence across the globe, Tech Mahindra services customers across the Americas, Europe, West Asia, Africa and the Asia-Pacific region. Nayyar told ET here today that the company expects software exports to rise substantially during the second half of the current fiscal and the company in the first phase would inject a sizable part of the proposed investment of Rs 200 crore in the RGCTP campus to be spread over 15 acres of land and employ 2,500 IT and engineering professionals. The entire investment will be funded through internal accruals, he said. Foundation stone of the state-of-the-art campus was laid here today by Punjab Governor and Chandigarh administrator Gen S F Rodrigues. The campus will seat 5,000 professionals. He said the RGCTP complex would eventually be made into a major hub in the region and this will enable the company to participate in the techno economic development of the region as well.