Government to biz: Bengaluru growing too fast but we’ll meet demands
7 Jan 2016 4:37 AM IST
CM, ministers interact with industry leaders ahead of GIM scheduled for Feb 3-5.
Chief Minister Siddaramaiah greets one of the newly elected MLCs at the swearing -in ceremony at Vidhana Soudha on Wednesday. Council chairman D.H. Shankaramurthy looks on
Bengaluru: Large and Medium Industries Minister Mr R.V. Deshpande has admitted that Bengaluru’s infrastructure growth could not keep pace with its growth in population and related developments.
Speaking at an interaction meet organised as a prelude to Invest Karnataka 2016 GIM here on Wednesday, in which Chief Minister Mr Siddaramaiah and members from industry participated, Mr Deshpande said that the government was seriously trying to address this problem.
The population jump was around 75% between 2000 and 2015, increasing it from 5.9 million to 9.5 million. Whatever concerns investors in Bengaluru are highlighting now, the same concerns are being raised by investors from San Francisco too. The government is addressing the problems one by one, he said, assuring industries that any expansion plans by prevailing companies would be cleared across the table.
The government has decided to hold a three-day Global Investors Meet from February 3- 5. The state has already released over 15000 acres of land to KIADB across Karnataka and would be focusing on attracting investment in the fields of Aerospace, Defence, Energy, Agrotech, Urban Infrastructure, Electronic manufacturing. Besides, seven countries, including France, Germany, Japan, Korea and Italy have agreed to hold their respective country’s sessions during the GIM.
Responding to Mr Deshpande, industry leaders said the government needed to focus on some core areas. TVS Motor group Chairman Mr Venu Srinivasan urged the government to provide better road and rail infrastructure between Bengaluru and Mysuru, so that the travel time would be just one hour.
Stick to deadlines, say industry bigwigs
Bosch India Managing Director Dr Steffen Berns said on Wednesday that to accelerate investment in Karnataka, the government has to make things happen fast.
This means the industries department needed more single window agencies to clear proposals fast. Besides implementing infrastructure projects, the government should meet the scheduled dates, especially in projects like Metro, he said during the interaction meet organised as a prelude to the Global Investors Meet planned in February.
Manipal Global Education Chairman Mr T.V. Mohandas Pai suggested that the state government should focus more on the social sector, education and on developing infrastructure, rather than maintaining power.
He suggested that the government privatise the power segment.
The main thrust of the government should be on connecting Bidar to Bengaluru with an eight-lane express highway, so that the journey between North and South Karnataka does not take more than five hours, he said while speaking on transport issues.
The government should focus on investing in smaller cities places like Belagavi, Hubballi-Dharwad, while Karwar could be projected as a port for the entire state in the future, Mr Pai added.
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( Source : deccan chronicle )
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