The Hindu Business Line : IL&FS, Bengal to float co for infrastructure projects

THE Infrastructure Leasing & Financial Services Ltd (IL&FS) on Monday signed a shareholder agreement with the West Bengal Government for technical and financial support to as many as five major infrastructure projects being taken up by the State.

As per the agreement, a 50:50 joint venture company will be formed soon to handle the projects, which entail a total investment of nearly Rs 4,000 crore.

Talking to Business Line here on the development, Mr D.K. Mittal, CEO, Special Infrastructure Projects, IL&FS, said among the projects to be taken up was the Rs 600-crore eastern expressway road project.

Mr Mittal said the State was serious on various projects, including the IT and Bio-Technology Parks.

He said IL&FS has signed similar agreements with other States such as Tamil Nadu, Rajasthan and Tripura, and envisaged no difficulty in working closely with the West Bengal government.

He, however, could not spell out a specific timeframe within which some of the projects, especially the road project would be completed.

The IL&FS Group, he said, besides financing infrastructure development, has interests in investment banking, capital market and asset management and development of social infrastructure such as integrated area development, local bodies, roads and sewerage, and provides assistance, both technical and financial, to private and government agencies for infrastructure projects.

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