Ramanujan IT City”, is an IT/ITES SEZ at , Tamil Nadu and is a humble tribute to the legendary mathematician . It is a joint venture development by Tata Realty And Infrastructure Limited, Indian Hotels Company Limited (IHCL) and Tamil Nadu Industrial Development Corporation (TIDCO). Spread over 25.27 acres, Ramanujan IT City, is strategically located at the heart of Chennai’s Southern business district at Taramani - the gateway to the city’s rapidly developing IT Corridor. It is also in close proximity to all modes of transport like the metro station, bus stand, airport, key residential areas, shopping districts, schools and the beach, thus offering a harmonious work life balance for all.

Designed by world-renowned US Architects Skidmore Owings & Merrill (SOM) jointly with Edifice Consultants and constructed by Leighton of Australia, Ramanujan IT City is being developed in a phased manner. The site splits into two distinct operational zones, the 23.74 acre processing zone which contains 4.3 Million sft of IT office buildings and 1.53 acre of Non processing zone with 3 Lakh sft of non IT development consisting of a serviced apartment and convention centre. Phase 1 comprises of four office buildings Hardy, Carr, Neville and Littlewood towers with a utility building as per the original master plan and Phase 2 comprises of two office buildings with ancillary services and the Non processing Zone development.

The Six IT blocks are arranged around a central courtyard space at the podium level, which is the highlight of the campus. The overall arrangement configuration of the buildings yields a large central courtyard to function as an eventful public plaza as an elevated level off the ground connecting the whole development. The original intention of the amenity level to serve the entire PZ campus as common public space is accentuated by providing some additional common facility like outdoor event court, landscaped spaces and connecting walkways over and above the existing facilities. Adapting to a growth pattern purely extended from the geometrical framework of the existing buildings, the notion of built form coherency has been achieved for the entire campus. The corner block is placed to the North east side closer to the North road and serves the purpose of the revealing face of the Ramanujan IT park, exhibiting the company branding that would be visible from the OMR. All the blocks have 13 levels of office spaces with design occupancy @ 85 Sq.Ft /person. Three levels of parking below grade and two levels of parking above grade (lower and upper stilt level) are provided to take care of the parking numbers.

Each individual block is designed to maximum efficiency of 80% with all services combined in a single central core. The office areas surround the central core, thereby making maximum utilization of the natural lighting. The blocks range from 50,000 sft per floor plate to a maximum of 1 lakh sft. The blocks are designed in such a way that it is divisible into 4 or 8 modules to accommodate a multi tenanted floor or a single tenant. Each module is equipped with a set of toilets, AHU and other ancillary services.

A landscape plaza at the N-E corner of the campus is proposed as a part of the master plan to act as an informal social space for the whole campus. It will house an outdoor performance space, covered walkways, outdoor seating spaces, water fountains / sculpture and food kiosks. This will act as an extension of the podium public space. A light box is introduced in order to accentuate the visibility and identity of the campus. This light box will express the presence of the campus and showcase its corporate identity through a pixelated pattern of their corporate logo imparting a kaleidoscopic effect achieved by a colour palate using LED devices. The development will be accessed from the 18 mts wide road abutting the entire length of the site. Two nos. of access points are provided for the Processing Zone and a separate access is provided for the Non Processing Zone.

The objective of the project was to ensure an eco-friendly design to achieve LEED - GOLD rating, with energy efficient systems, centralized grouped location of services installed to ensure easy maintenance, state of the art technology, fast track installation and compliance to all statutory regulations. The services design conforms to criteria laid down by Indian Green Building Council & ASHRAE and strives to achieve maximum points under the LEED Core & Shell version 1.0. Other key features include 100% power back up, access control and video surveillance and international fire alarm systems. There is also a professional property & facility management process certified with Quality management systems (ISO 9001 2008), Environment management systems (ISO 14001 2004), Occupational Health and Safety Assessment series (OHSAS18001 2007) and Energy management systems (ISO 5000 2011).

The services for the project have been conceptualized based on acceptable International Design Standards. Efforts were made to conceal all services and still provide access to those for accommodating changes in requirements in the future. Conservation of energy, optimization of resources, eco-friendliness and State of the art technology are the key factors in the design concept, which ensured least downtime and reduced maintenance hassles. Every effort was made to design and install equipment in locations which encourage routine preventive maintenance by providing easy access for operation personnel. Manual isolation will be provided to enable servicing, expansion or renovation of any part of the system without interrupting the services in adjacent areas.

Some of the Energy conservation features adopted in this campus are as follows:

Air–conditioning & Ventilation System Air – conditioning & ventilation system are well equipped with energy conservation features to reduce energy consumption and operating costs where economically feasible: 1. High COP (Low IKW / TR) Water chilling machines. 2. Variable speed secondary / tertiary / thermal storage pumps which ensure that chilled water / brine is supplied according to demand. 3. Energy efficient motors for AHU’s and for large ventilation fan motors. 4. Selection of highly efficient fans for air handling units and ventilation system. 5. Variable speed drive on all AHU’s. 6. Car park exhaust system equipped with CO (Carbon Monoxide) sensors so that exhaust fans are operated as per permitted CO concentration levels. 7. Cooling tower selection for minimum drift and noise level; energy efficient motors, VFD for motor speed control. 8. Heat recovery wheels for pre cooling fresh air by using the waste exhaust air from toilet etc., This ensures energy conservation in green buildings despite of higher fresh air intake (i.e., In green buildings 30% more fresh air needs to be supplied in all breathing zones to meet increased ventilation credit)

Electrical & LV Systems 1. Copper conductor cables are specified for sizes of 16 sq mm and below, this will reduce losses and improve reliability. 2. All lifts are provided with AC variable voltage; variable frequency drives (ACVVF). 3. Power factor is maintained at 0.95 or higher. This reduces the electrical power distribution losses in the installation. 4. Timers and photo-electric sensors are used to switch ON / OFF external landscape and facade lighting. 5. Compact Fluorescent Lamps (CFL’s) with high frequency ballast are used for corridors. 6. Energy efficient fluorescent tube lights (T-5) are used in all common areas. 7. All fluorescent light fixtures are specified to incorporate electronic chokes which have less watt-loss compared to electro-magnetic chokes and result in superior operating power factor. This indirectly saves energy. Electronic chokes also improves life of the fluorescent lamps. 8. Energy efficient fluorescent lamps & CFL lamps which give approx. 30% more light output for the same watts consumed and therefore require less nos. of fixtures and corresponding lower point wiring costs. 9. Dimmers are provided for public area lighting. 10. An APFC relay based on thyristor switching is proposed to effect the power factor correction / improvement within a few cycles of deviation from the setting & also to reduce inrush currents. 11. Transformers have minimum no load losses as compared to conventional transformers. 12. All cables are derated to avoid heating during use. This also indirectly reduces losses and improves reliability.

Plumbing & Fire Fighting 1. VFD based hydro pneumatic system. 2. Efficient condensate return & recovery system. 3. Pumps & equipment selected on “best” energy efficiency point.

Currently four buildings are fully occupied by some of the top companies of the world, such as TCS, Cognizant, Infosys, Mindtree, HP, Cisco, Wipro, Pershing, Scientific Publishing Services, Sitel etc. Ramanujan IT City is fast becoming Chennai’s landmark IT destination and a campus of choice.