West Bengal rolls out red carpet for IT sector

The government of West Bengal has launched a multi-pronged initiative to win the confidence of technology sector companies and grow the information technology (IT) and IT enabled services (ITES) in the state by at least 50 per cent in this fiscal under a plan that has obtained the state cabinet's backing.

Spearheaded by the IT department of the state and its agencies like Webel Ltd., the initiative would create a pool of attractive real estate solutions of upto 20 lakh square feet at new destinations.

The real estate would be offered to investors to enable them to kick-start their operations in the state with minimum loss of time and at cost-competitive rates, more so as the real estate was being developed by established sector players like DLF and Shapoorji Pallonji, said top sources in the state It department.

Bengal's IT minister Debesh Das, who was managing this effort, would contact select IT and ITES companies directly with offers to start up operations in the state at rates that were upto 50 per cent lower than established IT centres like Hyderabad or Pune.

Das would also monitor the initiative to identify and contact medium seized enterprises as companies in this category were seen to be less demanding and offered higher growth potential.

"The IT department can offer space today at Rs 25 a square foot at Siliguri to all comers", said state IT and bio-technology secretary Siddharth.

The IT department would be using as incentive the numerous infrastructure projects that were being commissioned in the state to enhance its attractiveness to investors over and above its power-surplus situation and cost-competitive workforce.

The IT department would offer realty at multiple IT hubs being developed under public private partnership (PPP) model, and the 20 lakh square feet being offered initially was expected to go up to 80 lakh square feet of built-up space accruing to the IT department as its share in PPP-based projects.

The first was the semi-conductor centre (SCC) being developed at Sector 5 at Salt Lake at an estimated cost of Rs 37 crore under ownership of WEBEL, the nodal agency of the IT department.

It would offer rent of between Rs 35 to Rs 40 per sq ft per month and the building would be specially designed for the semiconductor companies with expensive software equipment for research and training.

A second software technology park basically for SME companies was being developed using the PPP route on a 1.25 acre WEBEL plot in Salt Lake Sector 5.

Webel would leverage the free developed area it received from the PPP partner to handhold investors and populate this Rs 48 crore project with rentals around Rs 25 per. sq ft.

A third IT hub was being proposed at Jagadishpur close to Kolkata on 332 acres and developed once again through the PPP route.

WEBEL's share of land would be 160 acres and this would be dedicated to companies with attached residential area for employees and facilities facilities like food court and entertainment zone at subsidized rentals.

The fourth was the special economic zone in the Bhangar-Rajarhat Development Authority (BRADA) area covering at least 200 acres, beyond a canal that currently marked the border of the rajarhat township.

A rate subsidy would be offered and suitable companies could get rental at a per month charge of around Rs 25.

The fifth SEZ would come up at Nonadanga, also east of Kolkata, on around 75 acres of which 50 acres would be for the IT SEZ hub under a joint venture between the state IT ministry and a single party as developer.

WEBEL would design roads, waterways and power system for the area for companies to set up operations.

The state IT department was pinning great hopes on its fifth SEZ at Kalyani, built on land transferred by the animal resources department's derelict dairy farm.

A proposed zone already approved by the Centre, the 200 acre SEZ would be developed on the PPP model by the IT ministry.

Companies like Explore Tech and Acclaris had already moved in to tap the potential of the Siliguri and Jalpaiguri areas, where Infinity had also been provided with three acres now with the promise of further allocation of 22 more acres.

Siliguri would also house the sixth SEZ to be set up by The Chatterjee Group (TCG) of Purnendu Chatterjee under the group enterprise Bengal intelligent Park Ltd (BIPL) on 25 acres with facilities like school s, accommodation for employees.

Investors in Siliguri and Jalpaiguri were eager to tap the large number of good English-speaking graduates from the North-east from the many Christian missionary-run educational institutes in the area, ideal for ITES enterprises.

Durgapur, the steel city where DLF recently announced its Rs 4000 crore housing project, would house a Shapoorji Pallonji built SEZ on 25 acres owned by the West Bengal government offering around 18 lakh sq. ft., making it the largest IT SEZ hub in the state, with the other partner being the Asansol-Durgapur Development Authority (ADDA).

In the final phase, a high technology research-based SEZ was to come up contiguous to the Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur along with a bio-technology park.

Haldia, the booming port complex and industrial township at the southernmost tip of the state, was also on the list of destinations set to get its SEZ.