With the intention to cater to an increasing European and North American clientele, Tech Mahindra, India's sixth largest software exporter, has opened up its sixth centre of excellence in South Tyneside, UK.

The provider of solutions and services to the telecommunications industry has invested £3 million invested during phase-I of the project, while another £2 million will be invested during phase-II.

The new centre would generate 500 new jobs over the next three years.

Mr. Mahesh Nagaraj, Tech Mahindra's vice-president for strategic initiatives, said, “We are a global organisation. Our expansion plans are based on customer requirements. Here the customers and business opportunities coincided.”

The Tyneside regional development agency, One North East, will service the clients of Tech Mahindra.

The centre will service Tech Mahindra’s customers specifically focused on delivering several government sector specific services in application development and support and business processing outsourcing (BPO) services.

One of its users will be British Telecom, which holds 35% equity stake in Tech Mahindra.