Nandigram ''disturbances'' not to impact investments to WB: Minister

Hyderabad, Nov 28 (UNI) The recent ''disturbances'' in Nandigram will in no way affect the flow of industrial investments into the State, West Bengal Information and Technology Minister Debesh Das asserted today.

Attributing the disturbances to Maoists crossing over from neighbouring naxalite-infested Jharkhand, the Minister, who was here to take part in the ''INFOCOM 2007'', an international IT conference, told reporters here, ''the problem in remote Nandigram, far away from the state capital Kolkata, has been fully resolved.'' Kolkata had been named as the safest among metropolitan cities, he said, referring to girls working in call-centres preferring to go by their own transport even past midnight.

''We are asking the companies to visit West Bengal for themselves and get a feel of the industrial climate from their counterparts in the state.'' Highlighting the State's IT incentive scheme, he said the Government provided Venture Capital funding opportunities for small and medium enterprises with innovative ideas.

Several states, including Andhra Pradesh, faced insurgency and this had not deterred industrialists in making investments, he said.

''There has been no decrease in investment flow after the disturbances,'' he maintained, informing that project proposals worth Rs 32,000 crore had been cleared during last month alone.

Projecting Kolkata and other towns and cities like Kalyani, Durgapur, Siliguri, Kharagpur and Haldia as preferred destination for setting up IT industries, he said the Government would facilitate setting up of IT parks and IT SEZs in these locations.

An additional office space of 30 million sq ft, to the existing 22 million sq ft, was being developed in Kolkata and other places to accommodate IT units, he informed, adding that an Advanced IT park in Kharagpur would be ready by 2009.

UNI