The West Bengal government will formally invite information technology majors — Wipro and Infosys — to take immediate possession of 45 acres of land being offered to each of them at Rajarhat in on the outskirts of the city and start constructing their facilities there.
This follows its decision, announced on September 7, On September 7, the government had decided not to proceed for now with the proposed joint sector IT township in and around Rajarhat in the wake of allegations of illegal land deals by a private partner of the project.
“We are ready to give 45 acres of land to both the IT giants, Wipro and Infosys. We will contact them and ask them to come…The units they set up will create huge job opportunities – an estimated 16,000 jobs – within the next two to three years,” Chief Minister, Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, said here on Thursday.
The State government that has been in touch with the two companies will be connecting with them will contact the two companies on Friday with the offer.
The sites identified for the two IT giants on land that is in the custody of the State's Housing Infrastructure Development Corporation Ltd is served by an and has adequate social infrastructure that will suit the interests of the two companies, Mr Bhattacharjee said.
“The price of the land being offered to them will be negotiated with the companies,” he added.Both the IT majors have been keen to set up units in the State.
“In the case of Wipro, which already has a facility in the city, it is a matter of expansion of their activities. As for Infosys, they have been very eager to come.”
Admitting that it was “unfortunate” that criminal activities “of which we had no idea earlier” were being engaged in for acquiring land for a section of the proposed joint sector IT township within which the two companies had earlier been offered 90 acres of land each, the Chief Minister said that his government had decided that “it would not be morally correct” for it to go ahead with the project.
“We dropped the idea for the time being but land cannot be allowed to remain idle and we will have to use it in the future,” Mr. Bhattacharjee said when asked by journalists about the future of the joint sector township project.
“I was a little upset [when the illegal land deals were exposed]. but But in this situation the only alternative for us was how soon we can absorb Wipro and Infosys in our State,” he said, explaining the sense of urgency behind the offer of 45 acres of land to each of the companies to set up their units.
