Big plans for small towns

Videocon boss Venugopal Dhoot at Writers’. (Kishor Roy Chowdhury)

Calcutta, Jan. 30: Videocon today proposed two knowledge parks in Siliguri and Kalyani and a satellite airport at Kanchrapara in Nadia.

Company chairman Venugopal Dhoot placed the proposals at a meeting with chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee.

The state government has approved the projects “in principle”.

Videocon will now come back with detailed project reports for each of them.

“We want 500 acres in both Siliguri and Kalyani for the knowledge cities that will have software and hardware facilities and educational institutes among other things,” Dhoot said after meeting.

He offered to take up an abandoned airstrip at Kanchrapara and build an airport.

The Videocon boss also expressed keenness to develop a deep-sea port, which Sajjan Jindal had proposed to build only last week.

His company is now building a biotech SEZ in Siliguri and a steel-and-power plant in Jamuria, near Asansol.

Videocon has acquired an Australian company with expertise in underground coal mining. The technology will be deployed in Bengal.

It will also partner an international company in the Rs 15,000-crore Jamuria project, which requires 4,200 acres.

The company is not averse to buying the land directly from owners.