West Bengal will have 12 IT parks in the next three to four years while two new software parks will be set up at Siliguri and Haldia by 2006, a top official said here Thursday.

G.D. Gautama, the state's principal secretary in the IT department, said a total of 13.3 million square feet will be added to develop IT and IT-enabled services sectors in West Bengal.

A total of 410,000 IT professionals will be employed in the state by the time the new IT and software parks are established, Gautama told reporters on the sidelines of a seminar on IT infrastructure at the Bengal National Chamber of Commerce and Industry (BNCCI).

The state currently has three software parks at Kolkata, Durgapur and Kharagpur.

It has requested Communications and IT Minister Dayanidhi Maran for a submarine cable station since there were no such facilities in the eastern part of the country, Gautama said.

Maran has assured that a feasibility study will be conducted in West Bengal even though Tamil Nadu is a competitor for the station, he said.