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Bengal's second STP in place, more soon

Our Bureau

CALCUTTA, Nov. 26

THE West Bengal Chief Minister, Mr Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, today inaugurated the Rs 5.5-crore second software technology park (STP) in the city.

The 65,000 sq feet facility, created by West Bengal Electronics Industry Development Corporation (Webel), has been booked by seven IT companies of European and Silicon Valley lineage.

The companies are: Bharti-BT Internet, Sema Group, TCT, Delsoft, Digital Domain, Insync Technologies and Soffront Software.

At the inaugural function, Mr Bhattacharjee announced that the State Government was proposing to set up two more STPs _ one in Durgapur and the other in Kalyani. Also, Webel would shortly build a new electronic complex with private participation on a 50- acre plot on the city's fringe.

The Chief Minister said that West Bengal was refocussing its attention on the IT sector. Land had been handed over last week to Wipro for setting up an R&D centre in the city. A high-speed earth station would soon be installed in the city to meet the gro wing connectivity requirement.

To open a new IT era, the State has planned to set up an Rs 8-crore State-wide dedicated network on an optical fibre backbone. The State would emphasise on multimedia and Web-enabled technologies. The Webel-IBM distance learning centre here would become functional in December.

He hoped that the new thrust would yield results in terms of fresh investments and employment opportunities in a couple of years.

Mr Subrata Ganguly, chairman of Webel, declared that Webel and Tata Consultancy Services would float a joint venture to provide application services.

Mr Bansigopal Choudhury, Commerce & Industry Minister, said the Videocon group, which had acquired the facility of Philips, was likely to invest around Rs 100 crore in a project in the State.