In another twist to the Infosys-West Bengal saga, state Information Technology (IT) and Industry Minister Partha Chatterjee has asked company representatives to meet him, in a bid to salvage the project which has been stuck on the issue of special economic zone (SEZ) status.
“I spoke to the IT minister on Friday. He wants me to meet him and discuss face to face the issues at hand. The final decision will be arrived at after the meeting,” said Binod Hampapur, senior vice-president and global head of commercial and corporate relations.
While Hampapur refused to comment on exactly when the meeting will take place, officials from Infosys said it was expected to take place next week.
State IT minister Partha Chatterjee said that he had invited Infosys to come and meet the chief minister while reiterating that Bengal remained against SEZs.
Earlier Chatterjee had told Business Standard that Infosys was waiting for SEZ status, which would not be given and the IT major would have to ask him for other sops which he would be happy to provide.
“They are waiting for a letter on SEZ, which is not going to happen. They should tell me what else they want, we can discuss that,” Chatterjee had said.
Infosys which has wanted to set up a campus in Bengal since 2003, was allocated 50 acres in Rajarhat at Rs 1.5 crore an acre by the Left Front government in 2010.
“While we will meet the IT minister, things will remain stuck as they are if the government was to not agree to an SEZ recommendation. We always have options,” Hampapur said on Friday.
The campus, work on which, was supposed to start in six month’s time was to provide employment to an estimated 20,000 people, and would have been a showcase campus for the fledgling IT industry in Bengal.