Infosys remains firm on Rajarhat

The announcement was made today by CEO and Managing Director of the company S Gopalakrishnan,who met Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee at Writers’ Buildings and discussed the project with him.

The state government has already allotted 50 acres of land to the Bangalore-based company,for which it has paid Rs 19 crore – 25 per cent of the price of the land. Infosys will make an investment of Rs 1,000 crore in this project.

“We are not into politics. We need co-operation from all quarters as we got elsewhere in the country. We want to build an excellent IT centre in Kolkata so that people from this region do not have to go to places like Hyderabad or Bangalore,” Gopalakrishnan said.

Top officials of the company said that after completion,the project will provide employment to around 15,000 people.

Meanwhile,on December 8 Wipro chairman Azim Premji is coming to meet the chief minister to finalise talks on setting up of its project — also at Rajarhat. Wipro too has been allotted 50 acres of land at the upcoming township.

“We are very happy that they have come back. I hope they start construction soon,” Debesh Das,State Minister for IT,said.

Earlier,both the companies were given land at a proposed IT park to be set up on a 1600-acre plot near Vedic Village at Rajarhat. But following reports of land grabbing by land sharks that came pouring in after a devastating fire engulfed the Village on August 23,last year,the state government had scrapped the whole project.