West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Tuesday said software major Infosys is ready to set up its campus at the satellite township of Rajarhat in the state, investing around Rs 100 crore in the first phase of the project without the SEZ status. The country’s second-biggest software services firm had been demanding a special economic zone (SEZ) status for the proposed project despite a strong stance taken by the state government against it. Talking to reporters at Nabanna, the state secretariat, Banerjee said Infosys would soon start work to set up its Rajarhat campus, which would spread over 50 acres of land, without the SEZ status.

“Infosys is coming to our state. They will be investing Rs. 100 crore in the first phase for setting up the campus at Rajarhat. We are not giving SEZ status to it. Our government will offer all other facilities,” Banerjee said. The project is expected to generate around 1000 jobs in the first phase. The Bengaluru-headquartered company got the land at Rajarhat for the proposed project in 2010, and the then Left Front government had promised SEZ status to its founder N R Narayana Murthy in the hope of drawing big investment. The project had the prospect of creating around 15,000 jobs. Banerjee’s Trinamool Congress came to power a year later and refused to give the SEZ tag to the project.