Dismissing doubts expressed in some quarters, Karnataka Chief Minister J H Patel has assured US investors that the planned international airport project in Bangalore is an absolute reality and would take off soon.
Addressing representatives of more than 100 American businesses and senior government officials at a roundtable organised by the US-India Business Council, Patel admitted that some obstacles, some questions have been raised (about the project).
But he asserted: It will be a certainty. No one can come in the way. It will be cleared. Foreign investors need not have any doubts about the project because his government was committed to it, he added.
R V Deshpande, Karnataka minister for large and medium industries and infrastructure development who is part of the Chief Ministers Karnataka Investment Initiative tour, also declared that the project will take off soon.
It is pending with the Government of India now for final clearance and we are confident that by next month we should get the clearances, Deshpande explained.
It is a very prestigious project for the country, not only Karnataka. There should not be doubts in the minds of investors that the airport may come, may not come, he added.
The state government has already taken steps to acquire land for the project and all the final notifications have been issued as far as the private properties are concerned. We have already transferred the government land to a nodal agency, he said. The Karnataka governments assurance on the Bangalore airport project was meant to be a strong pitch for increased US investment in the state. Patel pointed out that his government was even more friendly to foreign investors than the Indian government. Karnataka always sought foreign investment even at a time the Government of India had its reservations, he said.
He referred to the discussions and negotiations between Karnataka and the US power company Congentrix, which he said took place well before Indias economic reforms were announced in July 1991.
Even when Narasimha Rao was Prime Minister and Deve Gowda was (Karnataka) Chief Minister and I was power minister, we tried to get this project through but there were so many obstacles, Patel said. The Cogentrix project was finally cleared only after H D Deve Gowda became Prime Minister in June 1996.
We dealt with Cogentrix in a much different way than Maharashtra did with Enron, he said.
The Karnataka Chief Minister also said that the composition of the United Front (UF) coalition government should not make potential investors apprehensive because India is a democracy.
During the last 50 years, we have learned enough to operate within the Constitution and we are completely bound by the law, he declared.
Despite ideological differences among the UFs 14 partners, when it comes to economic issues, when it comes to doing something industrial, these things do not come in the way, he said.
Patel declared that his own government was quite stable and nobody need have any apprehension about it.
But he added that more than the stability of his government, he was concerned about Karnatakas development.
