HYDERABAD (India): The United States plans to open a fourth consulate in India next year in the southern hi-tech city of Hyderabad, a US envoy confirmed on Tuesday.

The consulate will begin operations “sometime in late 2008,” David Mulford, US ambassador to India, told reporters in Hyderabad, capital of the state of Andhra Pradesh and the Indian base of several IT giants like Microsoft. The mission will be temporarily housed in a century-old heritage building while construction of a permanent structure would be completed by 2011 on a sprawling stretch of land on the city's outskirts, US officials said.

The United States has three other consulates located in Kolkata, Mumbai and Chennai. The United States chose Hyderabad, nicknamed “Cyberabad” for its booming information technology industry, as the site of its fourth consulate because it “is a well managed city with a broad economic base,” Mulford said.

Plans for the mission were initially announced by US President George Bush during a visit to Hyderabad in 2006.—AFP