Farmland acquisition is passe. IT retailers, traders and entrepreneurs want the government to arrange five acres in the heart of the city for a one-stop marketplex to be promoted by their organisation.
It is not as if the Computer Association of Eastern India (Compass), representing retailers, traders and entrepreneurs, does not have the cash for a private deal.
But, as a former president said, a government role will help it get the land cheaper than an outright private purchase.
“We will be approaching the government since Compass is not a profit-making organisation,” said VK Bhandari, a past president.
He said the market-plex would be more than the E-Mall, touted as the only mall dedicated to everything electronics.
“It will be beyond E-Mall, as there will be a lot of shared space that vendors can use for training, meetings and demonstration of products,” said Bhandari, who runs Supertron, an IT hardware and networking business.
Compass expects an investment of Rs 50 crore in the project, which will also have all the brands under one roof.
At present, Kolkata’s IT market is concentrated around Chandni Chowk and Ganesh Chandra Avenue in central Kolkata.
“The entire eastern region does not have a one-stop IT products hub,” said Mahesh Shah, one of the six in the committee formed by Compass to give the government a detailed project report by January 30.
Shah said that, as a result, many wholesale buyers go to other cities to find the latest products.
The eastern region accounted for 12% of the Rs 70,000 crore worth of IT products sold nationally in 2006-07.
Bhandari said the project would help buying to become more organised. “At present, a buyer does not have any idea about where a particular product is available,” he said.
Compass, which 275 members in the region, is forming a corpus of Rs 1 crore to manage the initial investment.