Bangalore not getting investment it needs, says Mohandas Pai

"I am not very optimistic about cities in India (in terms of their infrastructure development for expansion of IT industry)," T.V. Mohandas Pai, Director (HR), Infosys, said here on Saturday.

Asked about the expansion plans of Infosys, Mr. Pai said, "We have only 10 cities, so we will expand in each of these cities."

"Bangalore is not getting the investment it needs in public area to develop infrastructure," he said while replying to questions of presspersons after addressing professionals, academics and students at the Goa Chamber of Commerce and Industry. On Karnataka Government's initiatives to improve infrastructure in Bangalore, Mr. Pai said, "They are trying to do something now. Let us see what happens."

On the problems in Bangalore, Mr. Pai said, "You need to look at Bangalore in a different manner. I think the present Government is trying to see what can be done for Bangalore, but it is not enough. It will never be enough because we need more." He was critical of Bangalore's transport woes. "We have 24 lakh vehicles for 70 lakh people. Every household has a two-wheeler. We have around 18 lakh two-wheelers. So the roads are not enough. There is no performing public transport system either. In the sense, we have 4,000 buses, but they are not enough, obviously," Mr. Pai said.

To ease congestion, he suggested building ring roads. "Bangalore needs ring roads, Beijing has eight ring roads. So we need not go to the middle of the city and congest traffic to go from one end to another," he said. Asked if he saw any other city emerging in competition to Bangalore as an IT destination in the near future, Mr. Pai said, "Hyderabad has done well, they have got good infrastructure. They are proactive. Chennai is becoming very exciting, Maran (Union Minister for Communications Dayanidi Maran) is doing a lot of work."

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