Plans include building a separate team for internet content development, replicating the Calcutta Online model in various cities in India and south east Asia and a Bengali newspage with Bengali script.

"We will announce the plans later this week," Das said on Tuesday. "We want to make it big in the internet commerce front with Calcutta Online."B Hari, who had started Calcutta Online and will be involved in its management for the next few months at least, was much more forthcoming.

Speaking to The Financial Express at his south Calcutta residence on Monday, Hari said: "In the short term the production of the daily newspage will continue as it is and I will remain the editor. In the long-term it is aquestion of how my ideas match with the rest of the REI board."

Calcutta Online had earned advertisement revenues of around $50,000 in 1997-98 and was slated to break even in the current financial year. According to Hari, the advertisers are mainly real estate brokers, FIIs, banks and foreign software companies.

"The model of internet commerce that we have developed is one of the best. Our gift service and the e-mail service for delivering messages to people without e-mail connections in Calcutta were very popular," Hari says.Traffic to the Calcutta Online website is due to the popularity of the newspage, which is targeted at the Bengali-speaking non-resident Indians around the world. The site has around 5,000-6,000 visitors everyday.

"We followed a bottom-up approach. The news from the city gets priority followed by the rest of the state and the country with international news getting lesser importance," Hari explains.

Calcutta Online is one of the Indian success stories in the startup-sellout modelwhich is so popular in the USA. It was owned jointly by Hari and a Japan-based NRI family of the Kundus.

About its expansion plans, Hari said: "It is likely that I will be involved with the projects in various cities. Mostly these will be under the REI banner. We might look at the franchisee route in some cities. I might get into a management contract with REI in the long term."

"Calcutta Online will be a much more corporatised division from now on, instead of the one-man show," Hari added.

Internet shopping is going to be one area that we are going to lay stress on with facilities of online payment through credit cards, Hari says. "I also have plans for a website for advertisers and internet space selling purposes.