Infosys inks deal with West Bengal for 50-acre campus

KOLKATA - IT major Infosys Technologies Tuesday signed an agreement with the West Bengal government for setting up a campus on a 50-acre plot at Rajarhat in the citys north eastern fringes that is expected to provide employment to 15,000-20,000 people.

The memorandum of understanding (MoU) was signed between the IT giant and the states Housing Infrastructure Development Corporation (HIDCO) for the site, said state Housing Minister Gautam Deb.

Infosys was required to pay Rs.75 crore for the plot, which was close to the site given for another IT giant Wipro.

Infosys will now pay 25 percent of the land prices as the first instalment and the rest of the amount once the connector road to the campus is complete, said state IT Minister Debesh Das, who was present at the media meet.

The project will create jobs for 15,000-20,000 people, Deb said.

The deal was sealed after the two ministers had day-long talks with Infosys mentor N.R. Narayana Murthy and other top company officials over phone and video conferencing.

They have said they want to complete the project very quickly, he said.

Besides WIPRO, Tata Consultancy Services has also taken possession of a plot at Rajarhat.

The HIDCO led by Deb has acquired large tracts of land in the Rajarhat-Newtown area to set up a satellite township christened Jyoti Basu Nagar.

Deb also said Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) and Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) would also be provided land for setting up laboratories, offices and residential complexes for their employees.

Land will be given to DRDO and CBI for setting up laboratories of DRDO and offices and residential complexes of CBI. We are also giving land to NTPC (National Thermal Power Corporation) to set up their office here, said Deb.

He added that land would be given to Jindal steel and Japanese carmaker Toyota in the area. While Jindal Steel will set up their corporate office, Toyota will come up with a car showroom.

The Rajarhat area has turned into a new political flashpoint on land acquisition.

Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee, who had spearheaded land acquisition protests at Singur and Nandigram earlier, took out a large rally last week that traversed some areas of Rajarhat.

Banerjee has alleged that to develop the area into an industrial town, the state government has forcibly taken away 25,000 acres of agricultural land from farmers, most of whom belonged to religious minorities and backward classes.