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 Infosys Technologies Ltd, India's No. 2 software services exporter, said on Thursday it would invest Rs 500 crore ($125 million) in a new development centre in Kolkata.

The centre will create more than 5,000 jobs over a period of time, it said in a statement.

Infosys last week said it would add 25,000 employees in the current financial year that began on April 1.

The company's headcount is set to cross 100,000 this fiscal (2008-09), with a gross addition of over 20,000-25,000 people to its present strength of 91,187, according to a top company official.

As global software major with development centres in the US, Europe, Australia, China and Mexico, the company plans to hire as many locals in these countries for near-shore advantage.

"The hike will be slightly higher (16 per cent) than last fiscal because of tax concessions given to salaried employees in the union budget for this fiscal by the finance minister," he said.

For fiscal 2007-08, the IT bellwether hired 33,177 people as against its projected in-take of 25,000 in the beginning and 72,241 employees at the end of previous fiscal (FY 2007).

With 14,231 employees leaving during the fiscal (FY 2008), the net addition was 18,946 people.

Of the total workforce, 85,013 are software professionals and 79,494 are billable employees. The bench strength was 3466. Attrition rate remained flat at 13.4 per cent as in the previous fiscal (FY 2007).