West Bengal scraps Infosys, Wipro projects

The projects proposed by Infosys Technologies and Wipro in a township just outside the state capital has been scrapped, the West Bengal government informed the two IT majors on Monday.

The projects were to come up in the proposed IT township at Rajarhat near Salt Lake but had become controversial in recent weeks following allegations that land sharks had been involved in acquisition of plots there.

The announcement on Monday came barely a month after state IT MInister Debesh Das declared that the government had already acquired land for the Infosys and Wipro in the proposed township. West Bengal stands to lose out on a staggering Rs 10,000 crore of potential IT investments and the creation of 3 lakh IT/BPO jobs.

“Since the IT township project is about to scrapped, latest estimates by the state IT department suggest West Bengal could lose out on Rs 10,000 crore of potential investments and the chance of creating nearly 3 lakh jobs. Had Infosys and Wipro been able to set up shop in the township, a string of greenfield projects from the likes of ICICI Bank to ITC Infotech were expected to follow,” said a very senior state government official.

In the 1,600-acre township, IT/ITeS companies were to be allotted over 600 acre, with the balance was for building township and common infrastructure facilities. At present, nearly 1 lakh people work in the state’s IT sector with 80,000 working in city’s Salt Lake Sector V IT hub.

While Infosys and Wipro had both announced that they would initially employ 5,000-odd people in the Vedic Village IT township project, sources said both companies had actually informed the government that eventually planned to create at least 40,000 jobs in the IT township between themselves.

Sources indicated that state IT minister Debesh Das was likely to finalise the draft of his regret letters to Infosys and Wipro in consultation with the chief minister on Monday. Following this, the state IT minister could send the letters to both companies stating that the state government would be unable to provide any land at the proposed IT township.

In fact, before the Vedic Village fiasco and the consequent political upheaval, the state government was working on a “crash basis” to allot 50 acre out of the promised 90 acre to Wipro by Durga Puja.