Chandigarh, Feb 17 (IANS): The Punjab government Monday handed over letters of land allotment to 27 companies in the information technology (IT) sector, including sector giant Infosys, to enable them to set up their units in Punjab's Mohali town.

Punjab Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal, who handed over the letters of allotment, said that the companies will bring in an investment of nearly Rs.1,000 crore in the next three years and provide employment to nearly 30,000 youth in Punjab.

Badal said that the investment by these IT companies was promised at the Progressive Punjab Investors Summit held in Mohali, 10 km from here, December last year to attract investment in the state. He said that 15 of the short-listed companies were MNCs.

"The summit has started showing results in a very short span of time. The implementation of MOCs (memorandum of commitment) has been initiated. This is a historic achievement.

"It is a just a beginning and in next three years Mohali would be the first planned IT destination of the country which would further give big push to the economic activities in the state," Badal told media here.

He said that to ensure the speedy implementation of these projects, land has been allotted on lease for three years.

"If any company fails to invest within the stipulated time, the MOU would be cancelled by the Punjab government," he noted.

He said that Infosys will lay the foundation stone of its Mohali project on Feb 22. "It will be its (Infosys') biggest campus in India having capacity of 50,000 employees," Badal said. Infosys will invest Rs.527 crore in the project.

Promising to change Punjab in the next three years, Badal said that all schools and villages in the state would be connected with 4G service in the next one year with an investment of Rs.4,000 crore.

Besides that California University and Tech Mahindra have given their green signal to set up their university campuses in Edu-City at New Chandigarh, he added.