Intelenet, the 50:50 business process outsourcing joint venture between the Tata group and the Housing Development Finance Corporation, intends to invest Rs 35 to Rs 50 crore (Rs 350-Rs 500 million).

This is a part off the company's plans to more than treble its workforce from the present 1,600 to 5,000 by early 2006.

The company is planning to firm up its staff strength in stages. In the first phase, the workforce is expected to increase to between 2,000 and 2,200 by the end of fiscal 2003. Subsequently, the staff strength will be ramped up further.

The company at present has facilities at Mumbai, Mhape (Navi Mumbai) and Chennai. Most of the investments will be in Mhape and Chennai. It has already invested about Rs 130 crore (Rs 1.3 billion) in these facilities.

"The exact amount will be based on the kind of technology that we finally use. As a BPO company, we want to leverage on our size, technology and domain expertise," M Susir Kumar, director of Intelenet said.

Intelenet manages customer relationships and business process outsourcing for organisations based in the US and UK markets. The Tata as well as HDFC have over 30 years experience in customer services and business process outsourcing.

Its client base comprises Household Financials, J P Morgan, Standard Life Health Care and UK Bank.

Senior Intelenet executives said that there could be a small change in the equity pattern of the company. The Tata group may hike its stake by one or two percentage points so that Intelenet can be shown as a subsidiary of Tata Consultancy Services.