CM: Efforts on to improve city facilities

Efforts on to improve city facilities: CM
The Asian Age

Bangalore, Nov. 1: Maintaining that the state government had provided adequate infrastructure in the city to enable the growth of the IT industry. chief minister Dharam Singh, however admitted on Monday that there was scope for further improvement in this area.

Addressing delegates at the Bangalore IT.Com inaugural ceremony, Mr Singh said “Bangalore which attracted one new foreign company every week last year, is now attracting two companies every week. This shows that Bangalore is the preferred destination of foreign investors. A growth of this magnitude would not have been possible had the infrastructure in Bangalore been substandard.”

Mr Singh, however, admitted that this rapid growth had raised many infrastructure problems, which , he contended were being addressed by the government as well as civic authorities.

Asserting that the city offers one of the best infrastructures in the world for the IT industry, Mr Singh said that by and large the government had been able to resolve infrastructure related issues successfully but despite that there was a feeling that a lot more should be done for improving roads and public transport in the city.
“We are exploring all avenues to bring in investment to improve infrastructure by holding meetings with the Union government as well as the private sector”, he revealed. As a result of these meetings, the Union minister for transport had agreed to construct a four-lane elevated highway on the K.R. Puram-Hoskote section of NH-4 to decongest the traffic on Hosur road at an estimated cost of Rs 360 crores of which some portion would be shared by the IT industry.

“The IT industry has agreed to fund one-third of the project cost and the remaining amount will be shared equally between the union government and the state government,” he said.

“Besides this mega project, the IT companies have also agreed to share the cost of asphalting the important link roads like the Banerghatta road, Airport-Vartur road and Sarjapur road which will be completed on a priority,” he added.

Other reports:

The Times of India
The Hindu
Deccan Herald
Vijay Times
The Hindu Business Line
The Economic Times
Financial Express
Business Standard