Site for the proposed IT park behind Vedic Village. (Below ) Kris Gopalakrishnan of Infosys and Tamal Dasgupta of Wipro, who met IT minister Debesh Das on Tuesday. Pictures by Aranya Sen, Sanjoy Chattopadhyaya and Sanat Kumar Sinha

Bengal unrolled the blueprint for an ambitious information technology hub on Thursday with industry leaders Infosys and Wipro as the showpieces.

IT minister Debesh Das has signed the agreements with the two that will translate into an investment of Rs 1,000 crore and create over 10,000 jobs in five to seven years.

Chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee had promised land to these marque companies, but the wait has been long.

According to Das, the two infotech bellwethers will set up their campuses in a 600-acre IT park — to be developed by Akash Nirman Ltd, a joint venture between the state agency Webel and Vedic Realty — behind Vedic Village.

The state government has promised to build the social infrastructure for the proposed IT park — part of a 1,200-acre township — on the eastern fringes of the city.

“We are ready with a detailed plan for the project and noted architect Hafeez Contractor has drawn up the blueprint,” said a senior IT department official.

But no one would share with the media the time schedule for the big-ticket project.

Metro visited the proposed site and found that the state government would have to clear several hurdles before it can implement the project, spread over the sprawling, fertile greens of Chandpur and Koleghat gram panchayats.

These obstacles are separate from the slew of official approvals the project will need. (see box)

Of the 1,200 acres required, the joint venture company has till now mopped up only 400 acres.

“We are in the process of buying the remaining 800 acres,” said a Vedic Realty official, refusing to share the timeline for completing the land acquisition. The IT department also doesn’t have any idea when it can transfer two plots of 90 acres each to Infosys and Wipro.

“We have enough land to give to the two companies,” Das told Metro.

Buying land in Chandpur and Koleghat gram panchayats — primarily multi-crop fertile land — is easier said than done.

“The Vedic Village people are regularly visiting the area. But we will not sell our land on their terms,” said schoolteacher Laxmi Ratan Roy, a resident of Bajetaraf village in Chandpur gram panchayat.

The project cannot sail unless people like Roy are taken on board.

All roads don’t lead to the IT city yet. Not even one does. The road — potholed — vanishes after Vedic Village. Forget a four-wheeler, even two-wheelers cannot ply on the winding rough patches beyond the resort.

“The proposed park needs two major roads, linking it to the airport and the Rajarhat main road. Nothing will move on the project unless the roads are ready and there are no signs of laying the road network,” said a city-based entrepreneur.

While the project blueprint has allocated 80 acres for roads, the land is yet to be identified.

Uninterrupted power supply is the lifeline of a tech hub. But Chandpur and Koleghat gram panchayats are yet to see electricity.

Portable generator sets are the only source of power in the villages beyond Vedic Village.

“Hope the IT park will get us what we have been wanting for years,” said villager Rafiq Molla, expecting a rub-off.

But how and when power will be brought to the area was not divulged.

“This is too early to comment on these things… All these are part of the detailed plan,” said a Vedic Realty official.

Infosys director T.V. Mohandas Pai made it clear that power and water supply was the essential condition for the project to take off.

“We cannot start construction unless we get power and water,” said Pai.

Piped water supply is a distant dream in the villages in Chandpur.

“It is a panchayat area and we depend on tube wells and pumps for water,” said Molla.

Ministerspeak: “The planning for the project was completed four months ago and we are happy with the progress we have made till now. We will start distributing plots to companies soon,” said IT minister Debesh Das.