Why ‘Greater B’lore’ leaves Peenya industrialists cold

Why ‘Greater B’lore’ leaves Peenya industrialists cold
Deccan Herald

Much of the New Economy industry and the common populace may be buoyed by the State government’s hardsell of Greater Bangalore (GB) as the next bulwark against the infrastructural woes and administrative constraints on the growing city. Not so, the industrialists of the Peenya Industrial Estate, which nearly three decades after it was set up, is still one of the largest industrial estates in Asia.

Despite that claim to fame, the PIE has been long haunted by neglect of civic and developmental infrastructure. The 35-sq-km estate is spread over Dasarahalli City Municipal Council and the Bangalore Mahanagara Palike, mostly over the first.

‘Makes no odds’


“GB or no, our basic issue remains the same. We are not the electorate of the area, though our investments and workdays are concentrated in Peenya. That is why we’ve been treated like this and there is thus no reason to hope that GB will bail us out of the developmental neglect we suffer at the hands of the BMP and the Dasarahalli CMC,” says Mr Srikanta Datta, President of Peenya Industries Association.

Since 1993, the PIA and its associates have been fighting for an Industrial Township Authority to overcome the constraints on them. The Peenya Industrial Township Authority (PITA), once realised, will give full administrative powers, including property tax collection, in the PIE to the local industrialists.

A draft on the same was readied about two years ago. But the government has put it on the back-burner reportedly at the behest of the Election Commission of India. The EC wanted the decision on PITA to await the completion of the exercise on delimitation of constituencies.

Now that the preparations seem to be on in earnest for a GB (merger of BMP and the eight civic bodies that surround it), the fate of PITA is staring at Peenya industrialists. If PITA is delayed, it will jeopardise the interests of the PIE all over again, notes Mr Prithviraj, Chairman of the panel on PITA.

Maintenance issue

He explains the situation thus: Two years ago, the Centre came to the rescue of the PIE and sanctioned Rs 19.75 crore for its infrastructure upgradation.

The question that cropped up then was: Who will be responsible for the future maintenance of the infrastructure? The Centre was assured that PITA, which is in the pipeline, will be.

He notes that industrialists themselves and the state government, are part-funding (in the ratio of 10:15) the Centrally-sponsored project, and a special purpose vehicle -- PIC-UP (Peenya Infrastructure Corridor - Upgradation Project) -- has also been set up.

The Centre may do a rethink on sponsoring the project, if PITA is under a cloud, Mr Prithviraj observes and adds: “The state government hasn’t discussed the GB issue with us.”