Videocon lines up Rs 500 cr for Bengal

The Videocon group would be investing Rs 500 crore in West Bengal in the next three of four years, including Rs 400 crore to develop an information technology (IT) park in two phases.

The group said it was looking at the possibility of a tie-up with foreign IT giants for a Rs 100 crore project at the former Philips unit ion Taratala Road to make IT goods. It started its picture tube manufacturing unit in Kolkata today.

Venugopal N Dhoot, chairman of the group, said at the launch that Videocon intended to make personal computers and lap-tops at the plant.

The plant at present has a capacity of 60,000 computers per year and it will be scaled up to 500,000 per annum," he added.

The Salt Lake and Taratala plants were under Videocon Kitchen Appliances.

The IT park would be G+13 building with 15 lakh square feet in the first phase but the space will not be sold.

Instead, Videocon would enter into collaborations with foreign enterprises for IT products and business process outsourcing contracts serviced at the facility.

It could employ as many as 25,000 personnel.

The second phase would add another 15 lakh sq.ft. after two years.

The project would be built in collaboration with the Salarpuria Group.

Videocon's Baruch unit would supply monitors while the Kolkata unit would manufacture mother boards and PC parts for assembly.

PCs would be launched after six months under the Videocon brand name besides a a colour TV-cum-PC with Internet browsing capability.