



Kolkata, Jun 12: Videocon Industries Ltd chairman Venugopal Dhoot on Thursday iterated his plans to invest Rs 8,000 crore in West Bengal's information technology sector and a solar power plant, in addition to the Rs 15,000 crore already promised last October in a 3 million tonne steel plant in the Asansol-Durgapur belt of Burdwan district.
Dhoot said his group would invest a total of Rs 6,000 crore in two knowledge parks --- one in Siliguri in north Bengal and the other in Kalyani to the north of Kolkata, Rs 500 crore in an IT special economic zone (SEZ) in Siliguri, Rs 1,000 crore on an IT park in Kolkata and Rs 500 crore on a 20mw solar power project in either Bankura or Purulia.
The IT SEZ in Siliguri will house a voice-based BPO and will have IT services to serve Videocon's own corporate needs, and will employ 500 people in the first phase.
The 20mw solar power project, the only new initiative announced today by Dhoot, will require an investment of Rs 500 crore.
Dhoot met chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee on Thursday to discuss his projects.
"The chief minister enquired about how many people have already been employed and how many would be in future," said Dhoot.
According to Dhoot, the chief minister wanted to know whether Videocon is facing any problem in the operations of the two factories in Kolkata that assemble television and computer parts.
Dhoot said Videocon has started acquiring the 4000 acres required for the steel plant. "We are waiting for allocation of coal blocks from the central government to start the project. Iron ore is no issue as we have our captive mines and will buy directly," Dhoot said.
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