Infosys still interested to set up software dev. centre in Kolkata

Kolkata, May 31 (UNI) Infosys has affirmed their eagerness to set up Infosys software development centre at Rajarhat and the Bengal government will hand over land for the project to the company soon, state IT Principal Secretary Siddharth said here today.

''The project is very much alive and the company has not logged out of Bengal. We expect to hand over the required land to Infosys soon,'' Mr Siddharth told UNI, scotching rumours that Infosys had logged out of Bengal.

He said, ''State IT Minister Debesh Das and I had met Infosys mentor N R Narayana Murthy and CEO designate Cris Gopalakrishnan in February in a NASSCOM programme in Bangalore. They said they are interested to set up the Development Centre in Bengal.'' However, he accepted the fact that the state government had missed the March deadline to allot the land to the company.

''West Bengal Industrial Development Corporation is scouting for land for the project in Vedic Village in Rajarhat. We, on behalf of the state government, are also trying. There are land related problems but we expect to solve those soon,'' he added.

The proposed Infy's development centre would employ 5000 IT professionals over two years. Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee had tried hard to woo Infosys to the state since 2003, quoting the Hewitt Associates' findings that West Bengal would be one of the top three IT destinations by 2010. Mr Murthy had met Mr Bhattacharjee in early 2006.

Incidentally, a section of the press today reported that Infosys had backed out of Bengal as they found the price of land, quoted by the government, exhorbitant. The company had reportedly expressed apprehensions about the "frequent political disruptions and unionised ambience in the state". The message from Infy Mentor NR Narayana Murthy has been conveyed to the industry department here.

By March 2007, state IT department was supposed to hand over 100 acres of land at Rajarhat for the Infosys software development centre. According to the press report, two months after the deadline, Murthy's company had let the state government know that they were not interested any more.

UNI