Infosys officials inspect land at Rajarhat,avoid controversy

Kolkata, May 30 (UNI) After the controversy surrounding Tata Motors team,it was the turn of IT giant Infosys officials to visit Rajarhat on the northern outskirts of the city today in search of suitable land for its proposed unit in West Bengal.

The four-member team, which arrived here this morning from Bangalore, was driven straight to Sikarpur area of Rajarhat from the airport by a team of state government officials and shown about 850 acres of farm land in the area for the proposed unit, as desired by Infosys chief N Narayanmurthi after his talks with Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacherjee earlier this year.

The proposed unit, to be be set up on an area of 100 acres, is likely to employ about 3,000 IT professionals within the next two to three years.

From Sikarpur the team went to some neighbouring mouzas which also fall under Rajarhat police station area. They saw another piece of land for the same purpose. The Infosys officials,however,refused to comment on their visit and hoped to see some more land elsewhere. Incidentally, following last week's unsavoury incident surrounding the visit of Tata Motors officials at Singur in Hooghly district to select the site for its proposed small motor car unit,the state government, for obvious reasons, wanted to keep today's visit under wraps.

In order to give the electronic and other media a slip, state Industries Minister Nirupam Sen preferred to call on the Infosys officials near the proposed site and discuss the issue.

Later on his return to Writers Building Mr Sen,however,refused to brief the media about the visit.

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