IT giant Infosys on Wednesday inaugurated a development centre built at a cost of Rs 426 crore at New Town near here.

The Infosys campus, built on 50 acres, will have an employment potential of 4,000 IT professionals.

Inaugurating the development centre, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee said, "This is a New Year gift to West Bengal".

"This centre of Infosys will help other IT companies to come to West Bengal. West Bengal is a leading IT state in the country. Nearly 2,200 IT companies have presence in the state, including big ones like TCS, Wipro, IBM and Accenture," she said.

The chief minister also said it is a historic day for the state.

Banerjee said, "We wanted Infosys in the state and the company fulfilled our dreams." The chief minister said a new Silicon Valley is coming to New Town on 200 acres with the potential to create 75,000 jobs involving an investment of Rs 27,000 crore.

"Twenty-eight companies have already started work with 11 data centres coming up," she said.

Banerjee said that a cable landing station is coming up in the state which will help in improving connectivity for IT companies.

She said the state has also formulated policies relating to data centres, broadband and guidelines for artificial intelligence and machine learning.

Banerjee, also the Trinamool Congress supremo, directed local party MLA Shaukat Molla to cooperate with the Infosys authorities in helping them operate the centre "smoothly and peacefully".

CFO of Infosys Jayesh Sanghrajka said there is a huge talent pool in West Bengal and the Kolkata development centre will lead to the creation of job opportunities and a technology ecosystem.

Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by The Telegraph Online staff and has been published from a syndicated feed.