Soon, 3 hardware parks, 4 IT parks to come up in Bengal, says Bratya Basu

Kolkata: The Mamata Banerjee government has envisaged a vision to place Bengal among the three leading states in the country in the field of information technology by 2020, state Information Technology minister Bratya Basu said on Thursday.

"We are coming up with three hardware parks at Sonarpur, Naihati and Falta and four IT parks in Darjeeling, Kalimpong, Salt Lake Sector V and Rajarhat," Basu said on the sidelines of the foundation stone laying event of Genpact, which will co-develop a technology park at Salt Lake Sector V with Simplex Infra Group.

State Additional Chief Secetary, IT, Debashis Sen, who was also present in the event, said that the latest Genpact initiative signifies that Sector V is on the path of revival again.

He stressed on the need for industries in the state to embrace the new technological advancements, which are taking place at a very fast pace, to ensure a smooth future ahead.

According to Basu, the two hardware parks at Falta and Naihati will come up on 60 acres of land each and entail an investment of Rs 60 crore each. "The work for the park at Falta is in its final stages, while the one at Naihati is expected to be functional by the beginning of 2019," the minister said.

It may be mentioned that Genpact has 1.5 acre leased land in the IT hub of Salt Lake Sector V, where Simplex Infra will develop the 'Imagine' Tech Park. "This will enable us to get a portion of the developed property without any investment in construction. We mostly follow an asset-light model globally," Genpact HR head Piyush Mehta said. However, he did not divulge the number of people it will recruit after the new facility comes up by around 2021.

Genpact, which had begun its journey in the city in 2004 with 300 people, now employs 3,000 people.

Simplex Infra Techno Park managing director Rajiv Mundhra said the G+25 building will have a built-up space of 6,00,000 square feet and will cost about Rs 150 crore. Out of this, some 1.10-1.20 lakh sq feet will be given to Genpact, as part of the co-development terms.