Buddha lays foundation stone for `500 cr IT Park
After Salt Lake Sector V, Rajarhat New Town and Bantala, the IT companies have got a fourth destination in Kolkata as chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee on Wednesday laid the foundation stone for the East Kolkata IT Park at Nonadanga near Kasba. Spread over 10 acres, it will house the facilities of the Rolta India, the HSBC Electronics Data Processing India Pvt Ltd and the HCL Infosystems.
Nearly one million square feet of IT space will be developed by these three companies at an investment of around `500 crore. The IT park is expected to be fully operational in 24 months and will create 10,000 direct jobs.
After laying the foundation stone, the chief minister said, “Due to the global economic meltdown in 2009-10 fiscal, the IT sector felt the heat and major Indian cities, except Kolkata and Noida, recorded negative growth in IT export. The IT companies consider Kolkata as a preferred destination because of the availability of quality human resources here.”
State IT minister Debesh Das said, “We have bought the land from the Kolkata Metropolitan Development Authority (KMDA) and sold it to these three companies at `1.2 crore per acre.” Significantly, this price is lower than the price that IT companies paid at Rajarhat although it should be much higher considering that it is located off EM Bypass.
Meanwhile, Rolta India chairman Kamal K. Singh said that the company would invest around `250 crore over the next 3-5 years to set up its facility at the East Kolkata IT Park. “We will set up a large R&D centre, a software development centre and a delivery centre. It will be our third R&D centre in India,” he informed.
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