Even as he asked the Centre to take a “fresh look” at the controversial special economic zone (SEZ) policy, Karnataka governor Rameshwar Thakur said the state government has taken up work to ease traffic congestion in Bangalore, including laying of an expressway connecting the city to the new international airport at a cost of Rs 1000 crore.
He also opined that Karnataka’s “talent pool was not as large as its potential”. Noting that “we need to increase opportunities for productive employment for unskilled labour”, he said though Karnataka was a major investment destination, it was “not in the least because of its highly skilled workers in several fields”.
On the SEZ policy, the governor said industry groups should be identified in the first instance which are to be covered under the scheme instead of extending it to all and sundry. “As the minimum land requirement is prescribed, there should be an upper ceiling of land as well as for a particular type of SEZ. Within that ceiling, percentage of land area to be compulsorily utilised for industries as against other uses should also be carefully worked out and prescribed”.
Observing that Bangalore was “labouring under severe traffic congestion”, Thakur said the state had been urging the Centre to consider additional financial assistance for Bangalore which deserved special attention to augment its infrastructural facilities.
In the Bangalore metropolitan region, he said the State has undertaken improvement of over 1000 km of roads at a cost of Rs 997 crore. The ministry of road transport and highways has recommended to the Planning Commission to provide a one-time assistance of Rs 516 crore to the state for this project and it should be made available, he demanded.
On the state infrastructure, he mentioned that the government has taken up development of second stage of Karwar port at Rs 500 crore, maintenance of 2,000 km of state roads in a three-year package among others.
He said the condition of National Highways (NHs) remained a matter of concern and some of the NHAI projects such as NH4 (Tumkur-Haveri-Hubli) and the port connectivity project were moving at snail’s pace. The non-NHAI works, which are under dual control, should be replaced by a singular one.
During the eleventh Plan, he said, Karnataka intended to shift the focus of development to make it human-centred perspective, improving the quality of life in all respects.
The governor noted that the funding pattern of the Accelerated Irrigation Benefit Programme [AIBP] should be modified so as to provide Central assistance in the form of grant to the extent of 75 per cent of the project cost to tackle the flood and water logging problem as well as to extend irrigation facilities.
Since the launch of the AIBP in 1996, Karnataka has created an irrigation potential of 5.38 lakh hectare.
