By IANS,
Bangalore : India’s IT hub needs a whopping Rs.310 billion ($7.20 billion) investment in the next four years to improve its crumbling infrastructure and the central government should help Karnataka in this task, Chief Minister B.S. Yeddyurappa said Thursday.
“Unless the central government gives a helping hand to Karnataka, it will be extremely difficult for the state to find resources required to upgrade Bangalore’s infrastructure,” Yeddyurappa told C. Rangarajan, chairman of the Prime Minister’s Economic Advisory Council, at a meeting here.
The task of improving Bangalore’s infrastructure should be considered a national responsibility and the central government should offer a special package to Karnataka, the chief minister said, according to an official statement.
He sought Rs.75 billion from the central government under its Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission.
The Karnataka government will be pitching in with Rs.45 billion, the greater Bangalore city corporation and the Bangalore water supply board will provide Rs.50 billion and the remaining Rs.140 billion will be raised through debt and public-private partnership, Yeddyurappa said.
He said a recent state government study on improving Bangalore’s infrastructure has established that an investment of Rs.310 billion is required for the 2007-2012 period.
However, the central government has allocated only Rs.13.75 billion for Bangalore and Mysore for a seven-year period (2005-12), Yeddyurappa told Rangarajan.
He appealed to Rangarajan to present the case before the central government to get a special package for Bangalore as 30 percent of India’s software exports is from the city.