Kolkata: West Bengal Information Technology (IT) Minister Debesh Das Tuesday said the state would require 200,000 IT professionals by 2010.

"We will need 200,000 IT professionals by 2010 in West Bengal as many IT and IT enabled services (ITeS) companies are coming up in the coming years," Das said at a seminar here organised by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII).

He said presently there are about 44,000 IT professionals engaged in the sector and West Bengal had about four million sq ft of space occupied by IT and ITeS companies.

"By 2010, there will be more IT projects covering over 20 million sq ft of area in West Bengal," he said, adding the state is growing at a rate of 71 percent against the national growth rate of 36 percent in the IT sector.

The IT and ITeS sector in West Bengal also generates Rs.32 billion worth of business every year.

"To meet the industry growth in next three years, we are also planning to set up some IT and Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) finishing schools in West Bengal. Talks are on with the Burdwan University to open up a finishing school there. Another school will also come up at Siliguri in north Bengal," the minister said.

Pointing out the growing prospects of the IT industry in West Bengal, Das noted that a recent study had pointed out that Kolkata will become the third largest BPO destination in the world, after Poland and Hyderabad in Andhra Pradesh.

"This type of study increases our responsibility to make these predictions true in the days to come," he said.