Optical cable landing station under study

The IT ministry is considering to set up an optical fibre cable (OFC) cable landing station at Haldia.

State IT minister, Manabendra Mukherjee said that union IT minister, Dayanidhi Maran had replied to chief minister, Buddhadeb Bhattacharya that an OFC landing station at Haldia was under consideration and a feasibility study was being done by BSNL.

Addressing mediapersons, Mukherjee said, Kolkata was increasingly featuring on the investment radar of IT companies.

The state IT department would be conducting a roadshow in Mumbai in the beginning of October and would be meeting Mukesh Ambani to discuss their plans for Kolkata.

Reliance Infocom has asked for an additional five acres of land in Kolkata. A six-acre plot had already been allotted to the company.

Mukherjee said, the department's roadshow in Delhi last week was successful Microsoft officials conveyed that the company had shortlisted Kolkata for their next development centre.

HCL, which has a presence in Kolkata, would expand. Mukherjee said, the company would set up a development centre in the city. Mukherjee also met Raman Roy of Wipro Specramind and the company would beef up its strength in Kolkata to 1,000 employees by November.

To beef up infrastructure in West Bengal, two STPIs would be set up in Siliguri and Haldia. Moroever, the Durgapur STPI was also ready and would be inaugurated on October 7 and Kharagpur STPI on October 8.

The IT department would do roadshow in Chennai next week.