Two months after bandh-hit Fi-Tek “shelved” expansion plans in town, the four-year-old software development outfit is busy setting major growth targets for Calcutta.

The company is poised to move into an 8,000-sq-ft office in the Bengal Intelligent Park of Salt Lake Electronics Complex (Saltlec), from its Purna Das Road office, this summer.

In the first phase of expansion, the shift will lead to doubling of headcount, from the existing 45 to 90.

And there are bigger plans in store for Bengal in the second round, promises Surajit Banerjee, managing director of Fi-Tek’s India operations.

“In a year’s time, the number will go up to 200. We are looking for more space, as we are targeting a growth of around 60 per cent this year,” he adds.

Fi-Tek, half-owned by Purnendu Chatterjee, develops high-end banking and accounting software for large banking corporations and financial institutions, primarily in US.

On February 23, a four-member team from a leading US bank was scheduled to arrive in Calcutta to finalise its outsourcing deal with Fi-Tek. But the team dropped Calcutta from its itinerary as Left labour arm Citu had called a strike that day.

“We followed up with the bank authorities and even sent them some clippings of our facility in Saltlec. By far, the discussions have been positive and we are very much in the fray for the outsourcing project, that could result in hundreds of jobs,” says Banerjee, who was in the US last month.

Fi-Tek’s renewed interest in Calcutta is good news for the state government, which had sprung into action after a report in The Telegraph that the company had lost a major business opportunity because of the Citu-sponsored strike.

Chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee had personally met Barry Mermelstein and Subir Chatterjee, partners of Fi-Tek, and pledged all possible government support to ensure smooth functioning of the company in Calcutta.

The state government’s IT department was also in touch with the company brass in US.

“We are happy that their expansion plan in the city is on and they are ready to move into their Saltlec office around June. Both Mermelstein and Chatterjee have informed us that their talks with the US bank are on the right track and we are hopeful that Fi-Tek will continue to grow here,” said G.D. Gautama, IT secretary, government of West Bengal.