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W Bengal gifts land for massive Reliance project

M Chhaya in Kolkata

West Bengal is allotting the Reliance group a 100-acre plot for an ambitious 'knowledge city,' a project that could transform the state's fledgling information technology and telecom sectors.

State IT Minister Manab Mukherjee and other industry department officials met Reliance group chairman Mukesh Ambani in Mumbai in September to discuss the details of the 'Dhirubhai Ambani Knowledge City.'

The project, which envisages bringing of different telecom, IT and information technology enabled services companies within one hi-tech campus, could generate jobs for 20,000 technology professionals, official sources said.

Ambani has assured state Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharya of setting up a 500-seat call centre, a software development centre and a telecom engineering unit within the 'knowledge city' that will also invite long distance telephony firms, internet service providers, fixed line telephone and wireless in local-loop service providers.

Reliance hopes to induct some 2000 engineers by 2005 for its telecom unit that will be part of the Reliance Infocom venture.

Reliance Infocom has involved itself in the country's largest optic fibre laying project covering an area of 60,000-km at a staggering investment of Rs 25,000 crore (Rs 250 billion). The company promises to provide a wider range of telecom services once the optic fibre project is completed.

India's largest private sector company is also building a branch of its 'Dhirubhai Ambani Institute of Information and Communications Technology' here. The main institute has opened in Ahmedabad.

The state government has also earmarked land for the institute on the city's eastern fringe near the airport. It is contemplating asking the Reliance group to run the state-owned Indian Institute of Information Technology in conjunction with the proposed Dhirubhai Ambani communications institute.

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