Bangalore/Kolkata, Sep 7 - West Bengal has lost an opportunity to create thousands of jobs when it scrapped the proposed IT hub project in Kolkata, a senior official of Infosys Technologies said late Monday.

'By one stroke, a progressive state like West Bengal has lost an opportunity to create about 5,000 jobs by our company. There is a sense of sadness because the state is missing out on the IT job creation,' Infosys director and human resources development head T.V. Mohandas Pai told IANS in Bangalore.

As India's second largest IT bellwether, Infosys had applied for about 100 acres to set up a software development centre under the Special Economic Zone (SEZ), with an upfront investment of Rs.250 crore (Rs.2.5 billion) to create about 5,000 jobs.

The proposed IT township at Rajarhat near Salt Lake become controversial following allegations that land sharks - allegedly backed by promoters of Vedic Realty - had been involved in land acquisition.

Terming the sudden decision of the state government an unfortunate development, Pai said the educated middle-class youth of the state stand to lose out more than the global software major.

'We are not the loser as we have enough capacity in other places across the country to expand. The West Bengal government had promised to allot about 100 acres for our facility though our application had been pending since 2005,' Pai said.

Though unwilling to blame the state government for reversing the decision, he said politics was playing spoilsport in the state, as evident from what happened earlier in Singur and now in Kolkata itself.