Infrastructure dilemma

If the new board at IL&FS needs some advice, it should talk to Mr Thapar

Few people have heard of K L Thapar because he likes to stay below the radar. But as far as infrastructure goes, he knows what he is talking about.

Most important, he is not a dilettante. That is why other countries ask him for advice — but not India because that’s how we are.

In 1992, he set up the Asian Institute of Transport Development on a mandate from the Planning Commission from which he had retired as transport advisor after a long career in the railways. He is currently the institute’s chairman. I got to know him in 1998 when he