Calcutta, Aug. 17: The West Bengal Electronics Industry Development Corporation has chalked out a two-pronged strategy to offer IT firms office space at the 12 information technology parks of the Bengal government.

Popularly known as Webel, the state undertaking today opened the doors for prospective IT businesses and startups to book office space with allied infrastructure at these IT parks through its online portal.

At the same time, Bengal IT minister Bratya Basu, additional chief secretary Debasis Sen and senior officials of the IT department and Webel today met the franchisees of Webel Informatics to promote at the local level the use of the vacant spaces at the IT parks.

The Bengal government has plans to set up 26 IT parks across the state, of which 12 have already come up on a cumulative area of around 6 lakh square feet. The parks are located at Asansol, Barjora, Bolpur, Durgapur, Haldia, Howrah, Kalyani, Kharagpur, Purulia, Rajarhat, Siliguri and Taratala.

"The state government has set up 12 IT parks providing state-of-the-art facilities across the state, including tier 2 and tier 3 cities. The trainees from Webel Informatics can easily use this facility to jump-start their own enterprise, with the support of our incentive policy," said Basu.

According to state government sources, on an average, close to 40 per cent space in the IT parks have already been booked. "At least four new IT parks are on the anvil and more are being planned. The idea is to sensitise the existing 140 franchisees of Webel about their enhanced role in the district to utilise and promote the facilities created in various IT parks," said a senior government official.

Government officials said that the range of prices of available modules varies from Rs 6 per square feet per month to Rs 36 per square feet per month and depends upon the location of the park.

"The idea behind these IT parks is to offer physical infrastructure at affordable prices, the official said.