The state continues to be on the radar of information technology majors, with the Rs 11855-crore HCL Infosystems Ltd choosing the city for the future hub of its system integration business, and Zensar Technologies putting Kolkata on a shorlist of three for its third software service centre after Pune and Hyderabad.
HCL recently bought 1.5 acres at Rs 1.2 crore per acre in Nonadanga where it will create a data centre, system integration hub and a training centre.
Ajai Chowdhry, HCL Infosystems chairman and chief executive officer, said the company would recruit 800-1000 consultants in Kolkata and they will serve the companies across the country.
Ganesh Natarajan, deputy chairman and chief executive officer of the Rs 606- crore Zensar, said Jaipur and Indore are competing with Kolkata for Zensar’s next infotech centre.
“We will be looking for a place at a special economic zone as the existing SEZ laws don’t provide us any option to have our centre in a STP,” Natarajan said.
Zensar will recruit around 1000 people for the new centre.
Natarajan and Chowdhry were present at the ICT East 2007 conference organised by the Confederation of Indian Industry.
Chowdhry said Kolkata would be the site for the entire BSNL data centre that would start functioning once HCL finished its job of creating a single call data record for BSNL customers.
HCL has also decided to add five verticals to its existing portfolio of four in the system integration business.
“We have decided to add retail, railways, airports and ports, health and media and entertainment to our existing verticals of telecom, banking and finance, e-governance and power,” said Chowdhry.