Recognising the growing prominence of Chennai in the Indian software industry, the National Association of Software and Service Companies will open an office in the city before this year-end, Phiroz Vandrevala, former Nasscom president, told PTI.

He said Chennai will be one of the regional centres of Nasscom, the apex body of software companies in India.

Delhi-headquartered Nasscom has offices in Mumbai, Bangalore and Hyderabad at the moment. Chennai will be the fourth regional centre of Nasscom.

A slew of India's top IT companies are making Chennai their top software development centre in terms of total number of people employed.

While Infosys is setting up their biggest centre at the 125-acre space in the Mahindra City, near Chennai, Tata Consultancy Services is establishing a huge development centre at the Siruseri industrial park, which can house 10,000-15,000 employees.

Other top IT companies including Cognizant, leading ISP and e-com company Sify Ltd and Polaris Software Labs are also based in Chennai.