West Bengal Silicon Valley project to attract Rs 30,000 Cr investment; focus on AI, data centres

West Bengal's flagship Silicon Valley project is set to attract investments of around Rs 30,000 crore with a focus on artificial intelligence, data centres, and global capability centres, said IT Secretary Shubhanjan Das.

Addressing an ASSOCHAM-STPI event in Kolkata, Das said the 250-acre project is progressing at a "fantastic pace" and is expected to generate at least 7,500 jobs. Forty-one companies have been allotted land, with construction moving rapidly.

The state currently hosts 32 government IT parks and over 60 private IT parks, housing more than 2,800 IT and IT-enabled services companies employing over 2 lakh people. West Bengal now ranks sixth in India for data centre capacity with 11 private data centres operational.

Das highlighted the state-run Siliguri data centre's high-end infrastructure, including 40 H100 Nvidia GPU chips and around 40 L100 chips. The government is finalising a proposal to allow private companies access to this infrastructure for AI training and model building.

Software exports from the state have grown from Rs 8,000 crore 15 years ago to over Rs 40,000 crore currently, Das said, describing the growth as "phenomenal".

Sushil Mohta, Chairman of World Trade Center Salt Lake, said Bengal is emerging as a strong GCC destination due to its academic institutions, talent pool, and improving infrastructure. "We need to market ourselves better, particularly in Europe," he said.

At the event, STPI Kolkata honoured leading software exporters. Tata Consultancy Services received the IT Ratna award for highest software exports from West Bengal, employing 54,000-55,000 people in the state.

(With inputs from PTI)