By IANS,
Bangalore: A joint house committee of the Karnataka legislature recommended suitable action against Infosys chairman N.R. Narayana Murthy and promoters of the Bangalore international airport – Larson & Turbo, Siemens and Zurich – for poor execution of the greenfield project.
According to the report, tabled in the state legislative assembly Monday, the decisions at each stage – right from project approval to construction – were not in accordance with the expectation of a world class international airport.
“The present state of affairs is the result of such decisions,” the report said and named the officers involved in important decisions for initiating appropriate action.
As ex-officio chairman of the airport consortium-Bangalore International Airport Ltd (BIAL) from January 2001 to October 2005, Murthy was involved in two project meetings where “some of the important decisions” were taken.
Murthy’s name, however, figures in annexure-5 of the report for being present when BIAL was formed Jan 5, 2001, and at the first board meeting of the consortium March 21, 2001.
Murthy, however, resigned from BIAL in October 2005 after former prime minister and Janata Dal-Secular supremo H.D. Deve Gowda blamed him for delays in the execution of the multi-billion rupee airport project.
Incidentally, Rajya Sabha member (independent) Rajeev Chandrasekhar was also present in both the meetings as then chairman and chief executive of BPL Innovations Business group, which he exited subsequently.
But the 50-page report nowhere mentions Murthy’s role in the poor quality of workmanship executed and total apathy of the consortium towards the needs of the airport users.
“The central and state governments or their agencies should not consider the partners of the project – L&T, Siemens and Zurich – for entrustment of any work for five years,” the report said in its recommendations.
The 21-member committee was headed by D. Hemachandra Sagar, a Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) legislator from Bangalore.
Deva Gowda’s eldest son and former state minister H.D. Revanna and working president of the state unit of the Congress D.K. Shivakumar were among the members of the committee.
The joint house committee, comprising 15 assembly legislators and six council legislators, was constituted Sep 18, 2008, by then assembly speaker Jagdish Shettar to examine the lapses and suggest measures for improving the airport to international standards.
The committee, which met 20 times since Oct 4, 2008, considered and adopted the repot at its final sitting Dec 7, 2009.
During its deliberations, the committee members expressed serious concern over the lack of adequate infrastructure facilities at the international airport.
“The central government should withdraw the order permitting BIAL to impose UDF (user development fee) of Rs.260 on outbound domestic passengers, as the promoter partners (consortium) have failed to provide adequate facilities of international standard to the users,” the committee recommended in the report.