Wipro, Infosys get 180 acres for Bengal SEZ

The firms, which had signed the MoU with the state government on April 3, have been allotted 90 acres each at Rajarhat. This was announced by state minister of IT, Debesh Das, after officials of the companies met Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee at the Writers' Buildings today.

The Akashnirman Pvt Ltd, a private firm, is purchasing 1,200 acres at Rajarhat. Of this, the firm will give 600 acres to the state government.

"We are allotting 90 acres to each and the rest will also be allotted to other IT companies who have showed interest," Das said. Looking cheerful after meeting Chief Minister, S Gopalakrishnan, Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director of Infosys said: “The hitches are over and finally we are in West Bengal to develop our project.”

“We are finally in here to set up a multi-tech and multi-service IT centre cum BPO. This will create space for additional 5000 jobs,” he added.

Infosys’ plans for the state were pending since 2003 as land price stood contentious between the two parties.

State government's initial offer of land to Infosys was at a rate of Rs 2.16 crore per acre against the company’s offer of Rs 20 lakh. This later came down to Rs 1.8 crore then further down to Rs 1.3 crore but Infosys has been sticking to a price tag of Rs 20 lakh to 50 lakh per acre at Rajarhat. The Bhattacharjee government then offered a prime100-acre plot to Infosys in Kalyani, 60 km from Kolkata, at Rs 15 lakh to Rs 20 lakh per acre. But Infosys was not interested and said that it would back out.

Today Gopalakrishnans said that his firm has already already employed 91,000 people across the country and would create 25,000 additional jobs this year. “Campus offers have already been to employ 18,000 people,” he said.