Kolkata, Nov 17 (IANS): Around 70 per cent seats have been booked throughout the country after the fifth round of bidding under the BPO Promotion Scheme, an official said here on Friday.

The scheme, launched about one-and-a-half-years ago under the 'Digital India' programme of the government, aims to create employment opportunities and promotion of BPO operations to secure balanced regional growth of Information Technology/IT-Enabled Services industry in the country.

With an outlay of Rs 493 crore the scheme has two parts -- India BPO Promotion Scheme (IBPS) and North East BPO Promotion Scheme.

"After the fifth round of bidding, around 35,000 seats have been booked out of about 48,000 under the IBPS. Of the 5,000 seats allocated under the North East BPO Promotion Scheme, as many as 2,100 seats have been booked.

"Overall, about 70 per cent seats have been booked," Software Technology Parks of India (STPI) Additional Director Manjit Nayak said.

According to him, STPI relaunched the scheme after tweaking the scheme guideline and it has got a "good response".

However, responses have not been satisfactory in some states,he said, adding that in West Bengal, for example, only 200 seats of 3,400 targetted for the state have been booked.

Asked about the reasons for muted responses, he said: "The scheme is designed for promoting IT and IT services for smaller towns, say Tier II and Tier III cities. Maybe, people are not willing to migrate to these cities in the state. However, the STPI has been putting in efforts to meet the target."

He was speakign on the sidelines of a start-up event organised by the Indian Chamber of Commerce.

Exports of software and software services from STPI is expected to grow 8-10 per cent this year, he said.