WEbel's Kalyani project on hold

The West Bengal Electronics Industry Development Corporation Ltd (Webel)-promoted information technology (IT) project slated to come up at Kalyani, has been put on hold, if not scrapped given the total absence of interest from the industry.

Webel floated requests for proposals (RFP) last year, but found no takers for the project. Two companies, Mahindra Lifespace and Paharpur Cooling Towers, that had initially evinced interest in the project and had tendered expression of interests, backed out, which left the project floundering.

“They cited problems with infrastructure at Kalyani-the expressway is largely incomplete and not fit for commuters. Private industry is not sure if it will get participants, given that Kalyani is too far from the airport,” said Shyamal Dasgupta, executive director, Webel.

The project was supposed to be developed through public-private partnership (PPP) model. Webel had earlier appointed Srei Infrastructure Finance Ltd as the project consultant.

The Rs 1,000-crore project was supposed to come up on about 100 acres at Kalyani, about 50 km from Kolkata. Initially slated to be a special economic zone (SEZ), the project was later converted to focus on an integrated IT township so that formalities associated with an SEZ could be sidestepped.

Officials at Webel are hopeful though. “We have put the project on hold and intend to come up with a fresh round of requests for proposals soon,” said Dasgupta. Webel has not yet decided when these fresh proposals would be asked for.

Interestingly, the fact that the project has now been indefinitely stalled, has left Webel in the lurch as land acquisition for the project has been completed. This means that Webel owes the land department Rs 53 crore.

Dasgupta, however, insisted that a waning interest at Kalyani was not necessarily reflective of waning industry interest in the Bengal IT industry as a whole.

“There is robust demand for IT parks that are being developed elsewhere, including impending projects in tier-II and tier-III cities like Haldia, Durgapur and Silliguri. In fact the IT park coming up at Silliguri, to be inaugurated shortly, has already been booked," he said.