Achhe din? Wipro moves SEZ proposal in Bengal

'There seems to be a change in the government’s outlook towards the SEZ'

Software major Wipro on Thursday gave a petition to the inter-ministerial Board of Approval here to set up a Special Economic Zone for information technology and IT-enabled services in the Rajarhat area near Kolkata.

While it has in-principle approval from the SEZ authorities, the decision of the state government is awaited.

A company official met Bratya Basu, the state’s new Information Technology Minister, on June 8 to push its case.

“There seems to be a change in the government’s outlook towards the SEZ,” a Wipro official told Business Standard.

"Its facility in the Salt Lake Sector 5 area here, where it is constructing a second building, has an SEZ status granted by the former Left Front government."

In case the state government and the Board of Approval gives a go-ahead, it will be Wipro’s second SEZ in West Bengal.

In 2009, during the Left regime, Wipro had approached the government to set up a 50-acre campus in Rajarhat, wanting SEZ status.

It was provided land in New Town, Rajarhat, at a concessional rate. Wipro had invested Rs 75 crore (Rs 750 million) to purchase land for the planned SEZ but it didn't make any headway with the change in government; new chief minister Mamata Banerjee was opposed to the concept of SEZs.

This had also stalled a proposed campus of Infosys, which had planned to make an entry into West Bengal on the same SEZ promise.

It appears the state is now willing to draw a distinction between SEZs that require huge tracts of land and IT ones where such acquisition is not required.

The land allocated to Wipro and Infosys happens to be government land.

In this year’s election manifesto of the ruling Trinamool Congress, the party had mooted plans for knowledge-based industries like IT and those that depend on intellectual resources.

“Coming up with special policies and schemes to facilitate the development of such industries will be our priority, the party manifesto read.

In 2011, the Trinamool manifesto had said the government would not allow SEZs, to protect multi-crop land.