Das: Hopeful

Calcutta, July 19: The fate of the proposed Rs 5,000-crore IT township at Kalyani hangs in balance.

“We are yet to get any interested private company to execute the project till date,” state IT minister Debesh Das told The Telegraph on the sidelines of a programme organised by the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (eastern regional council).

The state plans to set up the IT township spread over 100 acres at Kalyani in the public-private-partnership model.

West Bengal Electronics Industry Development Corporation Ltd (Webel) will partner the private entity.

Webel had floated a tender on February 10 inviting expressions of interest (EoIs) from private partners to execute the project, where it mentioned that the department will issue the “letters of acceptance” on April 30.

However, the state IT department had extended the date for the submission of the EoIs to July 10.

“We extended the date expecting that the Union budget would offer some sops to such projects. But nothing was there in the budget,” Das said.

Even private companies, who showed interest in the project, confirmed that they also expected sops from the government, he added.

On September 12 last year, Webel had floated a tender inviting EoIs for an IT special economic zone at Kalyani, to be developed in the public-private-partnership model. But, the project got shelved.

Webel came out with a fresh tender on February 10, tweaking the nature of the project from an IT SEZ to an IT township.

Earlier, Webel said three firms — Mahindra Lifespace, Paharpur Cooling Towers and the K. Raheja Group — had shown interest in the project.

However, sources said Paharpur Cooling Towers was the only company which expressed interest and requested some tweaks in the terms and conditions. “We are trying to get a private partner and the fate of the Kalyani project is yet to be decided,” Das said. The department will take a final call on this soon, he said.

Satyam land issue

Das said his department would request Tech Mahindra to use the 2.77 acres that had been allotted to Satyam at Sector V in Salt Lake a few years back. Tech Mahindra is the new owner of Satyam.