<p>The firm is tight-lipped about its plans.<br></p>

KOLKATA: At a time when chief minister Mamata Banerjee is eager to get more investment for West Bengal, Tata Consulting Engineers (TCE) — a subsidiary of Tata Sons — has decided to shut its Kolkata office and merge it with its existing set-up in Jamshedpur.

TCE, an integrated engineering consultancy solutions provider, offers services in industry segments like power, nuclear energy, chemicals and infrastructure, among others. It has delivered over 7,000 successful projects globally.

An industry source said, “TCE is one of the premium engineering consultancy services in the country. Kolkata does have a few mid-level engineering consultancy services, apart from the smaller ones, but nothing to match anything like the Tata brand. If TCE leaves Bengal, it’s certainly a loss.”

Sources said that Amit Sharma, MD and CEO of TCE, came down from the Mumbai head office recently and informed TCE’s Sector V office that the unit was being closed down, and all its 350 employees could move to TCE Jamshedpur if they wished. “Those who don’t want to shift to Jamshedpur would have to leave the company because this unit is going to be closed,” a source told TOI on Friday.

He said many of those working at the sprawling 15,000 square-foot office have opted out of the transfer and are looking for jobs in Kolkata. The firm is tight-lipped about its plans, though. Anurodh Mishra, head, administration at TCE, was unwilling to talk about the closure. “I have nothing to say about this,” he said when TOI called him.

“The matter is sensitive,” an industry department official said, asking not to be named. Industry secretary Krishna Gupta said, “I know nothing about this.”

Sources say TCE recently informed the owners of the premises that it would be folding up the unit in August. With units in Mumbai, Delhi, Chennai, Bengaluru and Pune, TCE has five decades of expertise in almost all key industry segments, but has not been doing well in Kolkata for some time, say sources. “It was not finding the right kind of projects in Bengal,” said a source.

