Bengal IT minister Debesh Das (right) with Ajai Chowdhry (left), chairman and chief executive officer, HCL Infosystems Ltd, and Biswadip Gupta, chairman of CII (eastern region) in Calcutta on Tuesday. Picture by Kishor Roy Chowdhury

Calcutta, Sept. 18: Two more infotech companies today joined the race to set up facilities in Calcutta. While HCL Infosystems will set up a campus to offer systems integration service, Zensar Technologies plans to provide offshore outsourcing solutions from its city facility.

HCL Infosystems, part of the $4-billion HCL group, will employ 1,000 people.

Zensar Technologies also plans to offer jobs to 1,000 people but will set up the facility only in a special economic zone.

State IT minister Debesh Das said, “We have provided land to HCL Infosystems in Nonadanga and they have taken 1.5 acres at Rs 1.2 crore per acre.” He was speaking on the sidelines of ICT East 2007, organised by the CII.

Ajai Chowdhry, chairman and chief executive officer of HCL Infosystems Ltd, said the campus would be ready in the next 8-12 months. “The campus will contain a training centre, data and repair centre. This will become the consulting hub for system integration.”

HCL is planning four to five such facilities for systems integration across the country. The hub in Calcutta will be the second after Chandigarh.

“We have identified nine industry segments or areas for this business which include media and entertainment, telecom, retail, airport and ports. In due course each hub will specialise in a particular segment,” Chowdhry said.

According to research firm IDC, spending in IT by Indian companies will grow to Rs 1,09,645 crore in 2010 from Rs 70,832 crore this year.

Media, retail and healthcare will make up 1 per cent of the outlay, telecom 11 per cent, and e-governance 13 per cent.

“The Calcutta hub will set up a large capacity for BSNL. We will help them have all records based on a single invoice billing,” Chowdhry said.

The company has bagged two big orders of Rs 600 crore and Rs 500 crore from the telecom PSU. HCL Infosystems already employs 500 people in Calcutta, mostly for its PC business.

Zensar is weighing the possibility of expansion in three cities, Calcutta, Jaipur and Indore. Ganesh Natarajan, chief executive officer, Zensar, said, “We are very keen on Calcutta and will like to have a presence with around 1,000 people in the city.”