Chief Secretary S V Ranganath on Wednesday called upon companies to invest more in the urban infrastructure sector during the upcoming Global Investor Meet (GIM) scheduled on June 7 and 8.
While addressing an interactive industry meet for the infrastructure and energy sector, Ranganath said a recent survey had placed Karnataka among top five states in the country where the urban population is set to touch 50 per cent of the total population in the State.
Thus, the government was more interested in investments in the urban centres, he said.
Ranganath said investments in tier-II cities like Mysore, Hubli-Dharwad, Davangere and Mangalore were more crucial at this GIM. The chief secretary said investors had an added advantage during GIM as speedy processing would be ensured for such projects.
He said, in addition to infrastructure and energy, GIM 2012 was giving special attention to employment generation and inclusive growth. Secretaries of various departments shared their preparedness to accommodate more investors in the upcoming edition of GIM.
Infrastructure department Principal Secretary Rajkumar Khatri said the government was piloting an infrastructure bill, which facilitates formation of an Authority that would be chaired by the chief secretary.
He said the government had been conducting capacity building programmes for its officials regarding PPP model and already 250 officials had been trained. Khatri said 12 departments had planned 189 projects at an estimated cost of Rs 2 lakh crore, which are up for grabs at GIM.
Energy Department Principal Secretary Narasimha Raju said six new power projects to produce 7,300 MW in the thermal sector had been drafted. He said non-conventional energy projects were currently producing 2000 MW and projects to add another 600 MW were being approved. Raju said they were coming out with a policy to generate 500 MW from solar projects.
