HIDCO launches modified EOI for land allotment at Bengal Silicon Valley Hub

Kolkata: The West Bengal Housing and Infrastructure Development Corporation (HIDCO) on Thursday launched modified Expression of Interest (EOI) for allotment of land at Bengal Silicon Valley Hub in New Town.

Thirty-one additional plots with an overall area of 57 acres with sizes ranging from 0.25 acres to 10 acres will be available at special support price for setting up IT, ITeS and Telecom units.

The allotment of land in the third phase will be on leasehold basis for a period of 99 years. The application process will start from June 4.

During first and second phases, applications were submitted by Reliance Jio, TCS, CTS, Capgemini, Firstsource, Tech Mahindra, ISI and Sameer.

According to a senior Hidco official, in some cases the formalities have been almost completed and payments have been made.

"In a few cases, an exchange of equivalent value land has been proposed from Bantala IT Special Economic Zone (SEZ) while in a few others there is a shift from first to second phase and in these cases some more formalities need to be concluded before the allotment processes may be concluded," the official added.

Applications for the third phase will take place on a daily basis: this means that, for example, all applications received during 10 am to 5 pm on June 4, 2019 will be earmarked with preferred plots tentatively subject to verification of documents if the earnest money of Rs 25 lakh is given. There is an elaborate procedure in case two applicants looking for the same plot (withdraw or limited bid). Next day, applications for not-earmarked-for-allotment plots will happen again from 10 am to 5 pm. This will continue on all working days till all plots are earmarked for allotment.

All such applicants' documents will be scrutinised plot by plot and sent to state IT and Electronics department for seeking the views of the Board of Webel who may do further due diligence or conduct an interview. If there is no issue raised by Webel Board, the allotment letter for first installment payment would be given after approval of the state Cabinet. The details of the EOI have been posted at the website of HIDCO.

A total of 200 acres of land has been allotted for the Silicon Valley Hub. Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee had launched the Silicon Valley Hub in August 2018 in Action Area II in New Town.