IT major Wipro has written to the Bengal government with an appeal to convert its leasehold land in New Town to a freehold one.
Once the nature of the plot is changed, Wipro can use 49 per cent of the 50-acre plot for non-IT purposes. The rest has to be used for IT purposes.
An official of the state government said Wipro had written to the West Bengal Housing Infrastructure Development Corporation seeking a change to the land status around six months ago.
Government sources said the appeal would be placed before the cabinet soon. The conversion will be formalised once the cabinet gives its nod.
The Telegraph e-mailed a Wipro official for comment but there was no response till late on Wednesday.
The erstwhile Left Front government had allotted 50 acres for Wipro at a concessional rate of Rs 1.5 crore an acre.
But the project did not see the light of the day as the Trinamul government declined to grant the status of special economic zone (SEZ) to the project, which its predecessor had promised.
State government officials said the Bangalore-headquartered company had told the government that the conversion from leasehold to freehold would offset some of the disadvantages of not getting the SEZ status.
Wipro’s existing campus in Salt Lake Sector V, spread across 25 acres, is the first IT SEZ in the state. It employs about 8,000 people.
Wipro and another homegrown IT major, Infosys, were both given land in New Town at a concessional rate by the Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee government in 2009.
Infosys was granted the conversion from freehold to leasehold in 2017.
“Wipro’s appeal has been pending for some time because the file was first sent to the IT department, but the land is owned by the urban development department. The file has been redirected to the urban development department,” the official said.
“The land was allotted to Wipro on a 99-year lease. A leasehold plot, unlike a freehold one, is bound by many conditions. The lesse of a leasehold plot has to obtain permission at almost every step,” an official said.
