Infrastructure summit for public, private partnership

After the IT biggies, it is the turn of brick and mortar industry industry associations to advice the Karnataka government on how to overhaul the city's infrastructure.

At a meet to announce SUMINFRA 2004, a CII summit on sustainable private-public partnerships in integrated infrastructure, Ingersoll Rand chairman Daljit Mirchandani, co-chairman of the event, reiterated some of the recommendations of previous summits.

The recommendations include partnering external agencies to better the physical infrastructure and improve public transport.

Most of the ills plaguing infrastructure can be corrected by the public-private approach, he said while outlining the objectives of the summit.

It will focus on integrated infrastructure development, project financing, emerging trends and opportunities and bridging the gap between private and government bodies.

Some of the projects that will come up for discussion, he said, will be Project Sagarmala, the proposed Rs 1 lakh crore project on coastal shipping development, statewide integrated infrastructure promotion, special economic zones, green buildings and corporatisation of the real estate sector.

The summit, with a focus on the south, is scheduled to be held on September 2 and 3 in Bangalore. It will have a large convergence of political leaders, real estate and infrastructure developers, financial institutions, regulators, foreign investors and representatives from public undertakings, Mirchandani said.

Some of the notable delegates include Karnataka chief minister Dharam Singh, Andhra Pradesh chief minister Y S Rajasekhara Reddy and secretary, Planning Commission, government of India, Rajeeva Ratna Shah.

From the real estate and infrastructure sector, representatives include Kiran Kumar Grandhi from the GMR group and Sanjay Verma from Cushman and Wakefield. The organisers said Sanjay Nayar, CEO-India, Citigroup, Ravi Uppal ABB and Ajit Advani of Siemens will also be present.

The summit comes close on the heels of several mega projects that Karnataka is pursuing. It has kicked off a Rs 1,870 crore urban development programme and the new Bangalore international Airport. Besides, to ease pressure on the road network, the government has also been pursuing a Mass Rapid Transit System.

The organisers said two concurrent events, "Urban Competence" and "Estate South 2004" will follow the main event.