West Bengal acquires 200 acres for IT project

KOLKATA - The West Bengal government has acquired 200 acres of contiguous land for the Rajarhat information technology (IT) hub, where software majors like Infosys and Wipro have sought space, a state minister said here Wednesday.

“We are now ready to offer land to any company. The entire process of land aggregation is complete. The process of mutation and conversion is underway,” IT minister Debesh Das told reporters on the sidelines of a seminar organised by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) here.

The total area of the planned IT hub is 600 acres. Rajarhat is on the northeastern fringe of the city.

Incidentally, both Infosys and Wipro have sought 90 acres each from the state government for setting up their ventures in the park.

ITC Infotech, the IT arm of ITC group, has also expressed interest in setting up business in the upcoming IT hub.

Infosys chief executive and managing director S. Gopalakrishnan, who was present at the seminar, said: “We are committed to the project in West Bengal. But we are not sure of the timeline. Due to slowdown, our plans are on hold.”

Wipro executive director and chief financial officer Suresh Senapaty spoke on the same lines.

“I am still to have a dialogue with the minister. I can’t commit anything on the project. But we are one of the happy customers here in West Bengal,” he told reporters.

“Slowdown has factored in plans across the whole spectrum of the company. We haven’t added headcount yet. When we get back to recovery and hiring more people, West Bengal is equally good location for us to add on headcount,” Senapaty added.