Infosys plans clock tower taller than Big Ben in southern India

Infosys, India's leading software company, is all set to beat the 96-metre tall Big Ben, the iconic free-standing clock tower in London, with a 135m structure. The proposed clock tower, which will be built in the Infosys Global Education Center in Mysore, close to the country's tech capital Bangalore, will also rival the Hoover Tower (87m) in California and the McGraw Tower (53m) in Cornell.

Sprawled over an area of 350 acres, the £6.15m ($8.83m)-project will be an amalgamation of both Gothic and classic styles. The time piece in it will be a digital one. The tower will have 19 floors, with a board room at level seven. It will be erected from a 22x22 metre base.

N.R. Narayana Murthy, founder and former chairman of Infosys, said the Mysore training centre would be "incomplete without a clock tower". He added: "A clock tower brings a sense of academic breathing to the campus, and I felt we too will need one. And Vishal (Sikka) felt it is a good idea."

Ramdas Kamath, executive vice-president for infrastructure, Infosys, said all approvals have been obtained to kick-start the project, which will be completed in 20 months.

Hafeez Contractor, a Mumbai-based architect who had designed Infosys's Mysore campus, will design the clock and LERA, a New York-based firm, will provide structural consultancy services for the tower, which will be built by Bangalore-based KEF Infra.

KEF Infra, a two-year-old construction start-up founded by Kerala-born and Dubai-based engineer Faizal E. Kottikollon, will pre-cast the structure at a facility in Krishnagiri, in the southern state of Tamil Nadu. The entire structure will then be assembled in Mysore.