Software major Wipro Ltd has decided to take up its second project, a technology centre, in West Bengal with a total investment of Rs 75 crore (Rs 750 million) earmarked for the state.

"We have earmarked an investment of Rs 75 crore for our projects in the state. Besides a call centre, we are also planning to set up a technology centre here," Wipro chairman Azim Premji told reporters in Kolkata on Friday.

Premji, who met Chief Minister Buddhadev Bhattacharjee at the state secretariat Writers' Buildings, said the projects, once completed, would employ about 5,000 people.

Emerging from the meeting, Bhattacharjee said that the company, already working on its first project at Salt Lake, has decided to take up a new venture at Rajarhat on the eastern fringes of the metropolis.

The first project -- a software development and call centre -- was expected to be inaugurated in May, 2004, he said.

The company has completed work on 12 acres at Salt Lake and would be given another five acre for its maiden project in the state, he said.