Airport CEO defends Murthy’s role

Airport CEO defends Murthy’s role

Daily News and Analysis

Had Infosys chairman N R Narayana Murthy not been at the helm over the last five years, the Bangalore international airport would have been a pipedream for the 6.5 million denizens of India's IT hub.

Maharashtra Governor S M Krishna, during his tenure as Karnataka chief minister, had roped in Murthy as chairman of Bangalore International Airport Ltd (BIAL) in 2001, to steer the project that had been bogged by delays for over a decade. "If Murthy was not heading the airport project, we would not have been where we are now," BIAL CEO Albert Brunner said.

Murthy, with other IT leaders like Som Mittal of HP Globalsoft, took pains to convince the government on the need for improved air connectivity to the IT hub and improvement of the existing HAL airport before he came onboard BIAL. Murthy resigned on Thursday from BIAL after former Prime Minister H D Deve Gowda, who is a partner in the Congress-led coalition, questioned his role in the project. "Why did it take him so long to get it moving? Murthy has travelled all over the world. He should be able to come up with a plan to decongest Bangalore's traffic," Gowda alleged.
"Murthy was a key to us to get into the bureaucratic maze in Delhi and he would open doors for us everywhere," Brunner said.

A private consortium of Siemens, Unique Zurich Airport and Larson and Toubro hold a 74 per cent stake in the Rs 1,411-crore project, with both the Centre and the state government sharing the remaining stake.