State commerce and industries and IT minister Partha Chatterjee’s meeting with Infosys officials proved fruitful and the stalemate over the proposed second Infosys campus seemed to be heading for a resolution. “The good news is that for the first time Infosys authorities have said that they were eager to work with the West Bengal government. We had a 45-minute long discussion and they told me that they have complete faith in chief minister Mamata Banerjee,” Mr Chatterjee said over the phone after the meeting in Bengaluru.
Mr Chatterjee further said that the two sides agreed to resolve their differences through mutual discussions across the table. He, however, refused to reveal the details of the meeting. “I will announce the outcome of the meeting only after briefing the chief minister after my return to Kolkata,” he added.
IT department sources, however, said that Mr Chatterjee was upbeat after the meeting. “In the meeting, the Infosys bosses made one thing clear: they will not abandon the proposed second facility at Rajarhat-New Town,” sources said.
Mr Chatterjee reiterated the state government’s principled stand against granting SEZ status to the Infosys project. He, however, offered some tax relief as compensation. Shapoorji Pallonji has a sanctioned SEZ project lying in its possession in the same New Town area on around 50 acre of land. Infosys has also been allotted 50 acre. “If the two companies want they can mutually exchange their land so that Infosys can have the SEZ it so desperately wants. This proposal was also discussed in the meeting,” sources said. Infosys which earlier insisted that if it did not receive the SEZ status then it would not go ahead with its second campus project is now eager to take physical possession of the parcel of land at New Town.