In a bid to catch up with other states in the country in terms of software exports, West Bengal has decided to set up IT clusters in various districts across the state, an official with the IT department said.

"The thrust area in the IT policy of the new government is to set up clusters in various districts," the official told PTI. Such clusters would be set up where the possibilities were good, like Durgapur, Barjora, Falta, Kalyani, Siliguri and Jalpaiguri, the official said.

He said West Bengal was way behind other states in the country, earning just Rs 7,500 crore from software exports, which was only 10 per cent of Bangalore's revenues. "Chennai too has surpassed Kolkata, leave alone NCR and Mumbai-Pune," he said.

The official said though biggies like Wipro, TCS and Cognizant were present in the state, the notable companies that were absent include Infosys and ITC Infotech.

ITC Infotech and Aegis are now showing interest in West Bengal, while Infosys will be given land at Rajarhat to set up a facility, he added. The official said the head of Accenture India would shortly visit the state.

The company has already started hiring professionals in Kolkata and has also taken a huge space in one of the IT parks. Besides the software industry, the state has decided to also focus on the hardware sector, the official said.

As per the new policy of the West Bengal government, land will not be acquired for industry by the state. Regarding connectivity, the official said a consortium of MTNL and BSNL had already decided to locate a cable landing station at Digha, in East Midnapore district.

Once this was ready, connectivity costs of the software companies would reduce substantially, he said. The official also said that the government would closely monitor companies that had taken land but have not set up any units so far.