Bengal to add 100 acres to Silicon Valley Hub in Kolkata: Mamata

Kolkata: West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Saturday said the state government would add another 100 acres to the Silicon Valley Hub in the city after getting an overwhelmed response from four IT companies acquiring about 74 acres of the existing 100 acres, initially earmarked for the project.

The project was launched in August this year to attract even more investment in IT/ITeS/ICT and to also build a world class ecosystem for cutting-edge technologies and innovation.

"In just two months, out of 100 acres of land earmarked for the Hub, four major global IT companies, among others, have applied to set up new investments in 74 acres already," Banerjee said in a Facebook post.

She also said Reliance Jio wants 40 acre to set up a state-of-the-art centre for IT-enabled telecom, Big Data analytics and AI while TCS wants 20 acres in the hub which will add another 15,000 IT professionals to their current workforce plan of 58,000 in Kolkata.

Capgemini of USA has asked for 10 acre to start cutting edge IT business in the city and RP Sanjiv Goenka will start with four acres for its First Source IT company to do global operations from here.

"Encouraged by this quick and warm response, I am planning to add another 100 acres to the Silicon Valley Hub of Kolkata on offer," she said.

There are other innovative entrepreneurs who have also sought to join this ecosystem.

In the meantime, Genpact of GE Capital of USA, is also investing Rs 300 crore in a massive expansion, she added.