Mumbai: Cisco Systems today announced that it is developing a new one-million square foot campus in Bangalore that will support 3,000 staff from Cisco''s R&D, IT, sales and customer support teams in India. The company will spend approximately $50 million to build the new integrated campus, which is expected to be completed by June 2007.

John Chambers, president and CEO, Cisco, who is currently in India, officially launched the new facility at a groundbreaking ceremony conducted at the site of the new campus on the Outer Ring Road in Sarjapur today.

"India has been and continues to be a strategic market for Cisco both in terms of business opportunities and as a base for outstanding engineering talent. With the launch of our new campus in Bangalore today, Cisco will be well placed to continue building our presence in India, as a critical part of our R&D efforts and as the domestic market for networking products and solutions continues to expand," said Chambers.

Cisco first established R&D facilities in India in 1998. An extension of Cisco''s global R&D efforts based in San Jose, California, the centre has been involved in core product research and development and engineering across Cisco''s entire product family. It is the largest development center for the company outside of the United States.