Vodafone has committed to investing an additional 60 billion rupees ($874.9 million) in the Indian state of Maharashtra to help increase capacity and support new business initiatives.
As part of the investment, Vodafone will aim to expand and modernize its network across the state, build a state-of-the-art Tier-4 data center designed to serve the communications needs of businesses, and upgrade its high-end technology center in Pune.
The investment will also go towards Vodafone's ambitions of setting up a payment bank that will be headquartered in Mumbai as part of the loosening of regulations around banking licenses.
To help support these initiatives, Vodafone India also plans to increase its staffing levels to around 15,000 employees over the next few years.
“At Vodafone, we are enthused with the government’s vision of Digital India and Make in India and are keen to be a partner in its delivery,” Vodafone India CEO Sunil Sood said.
“Vodafone India serves over 194 million citizens, of which almost 100 million are from rural areas. We remain deeply invested in and committed to Maharashtra and are pleased to announce our enhanced investments in the state.”
But the news comes days after Vodafone confirmed it had been served with a tax notice that threatens asset seizure if the company does not pay a disputed 142 billion rupee ($2.08 billion) tax bill.