Re-tendering likely for Bengal's first cable landing station

West Bengal’s first cable landing station (CLS) at Digha is likely to go in for re-tendering, said Debesh Das, state information technology minister.

“We have been informed by the Centre that re-tendering will take place soon. CLS will bring down bandwidth costs significantly,” Das said at a meeting at Merchants' Chamber of Commerce.

The station will serve as the entry point for undersea cables which carry the bandwidth. Submarine cables will bring bandwidth from Singapore to the state. The availability of such a facility will reduce bandwidth cost by 10 to 30 per cent.

The investment involved in the project is in excess of Rs 200 crore. The project was scheduled initially for Haldia, but has now been shifted due to locational technicalities.

Das also expressed concern about the possible impact of slowdown in US economy on the IT sector of West Bengal.

“IT sector in the state registered a 48 per cent growth last year while the national average was 29 per cent. A sample survey conducted by us of 125 companies of West Bengal indicated a four per cent growth in the last quarter. This year, growth would be slower but still ahead of the national average,” Das said.

“A shortage of engineers is likely after 4-5 years as the current meltdown and consequent job squeeze may shift the focus of the students to other industries. The state government, in order to promote innovation, would provide financial support upto Rs 25 lakh on a case-to-case basis,” Das added.

According to Bikram Dasgupta, CEO, Globsyn Technologies, one of the IT companies in Kolkata, said that growth in the IT sector was about 90 per cent.

“It is still export-driven and performs well if on a contractual basis. The research and development efforts in the IT sector should be augmented as most of the innovations have come from emerging companies,” Dasgupta said.

Tamal Dasgupta, Regional Head of Wipro Technologies, said that the Satyam fiasco did not represent the India’s IT Sector. On the issue of a ban imposed by the World Bank on Wipro, Tamal Dasgupta mentioned that things had gone wrong with the bank and not with Wipro. While commenting on the present situation, he felt that business confidence was low and the industry was going through a normalisation phase which could take about three years.