HOT TOPICS

SPOTLIGHT AGENCIES

Global Investors Meet - Tier2 cities to get some love?

188

silkboard - 29 May, 2010 | Bangalore | Infrastructure | PPP | Citizen Reports | Economy | Others | IDD | GIM

A friend called from UK recently to tell me that he spotted an ad from Karnataka government about Global Investors Meet 2010 in a prominent daily there. Thats how serious GoK has been about marketing this event taking place next week.

Need - More of Tier 2

Bengaluru has had enough of love. Those Tier-2 cities need all the attention now. No, not talking Hoskote, Bidadi or Devenahalli, talk real tier2, far up central, and further north. More initiatives like Suvarna Karnataka Development Corridor (SKDC - click here) are it.

Projects - status on Power?

GIM Website also has the list of PPP projects available to the investors (clik here). As per this list (dated Dec 09), there are a total of 112 projects valued at Rs 98837 Crores. Power is the biggest sub-sector (50000 Crores!, 4 projects, Authority - PCKL, which would be Power Corporation of Karnataka Limited).

A similar list of all PPP projects in the area of Infrastructure is available on the IDD website. Seems more current (May 2010), and total value of all 74 projects is listed as Rs 83267 Crores. In this sheet though, total value of all PCKL (Power) projects is Rs 8400 Crores (3 projects, each 700 MW, Gas based).

50000 vs 8400 Crores, hmm, is something amiss or yet to be communicated?

(BTW, Another Summary of PPP projects on IDD website (may be the most current of all, dated May 13) lists 87 projects worth Rs 87518.77 Crores. Value of power projects is same though, Rs 8400 Crores)

Where is Water, Health, Education?

Lack of projects in some basic areas like water, health and education does stand out. The entries reads like this

  • Health Infrastructure and facility - Rs 11.6 Crores
  • Infrastructure facilities for educational institutions - Rs 11.4 Crores
  • Water Supply & Sewerage - Little better at Rs 357 Crores, but relatively low, given the magnitude of supply situation.

(Also, very curious to know the details of that 1 project listed as "Public Facility", Value 231.02 Crores. Decimal numbers in project value means this is not some random entry.)

The MRTS Projects?

GIM website has an entry called MRTS (mass rapid transport systems), 3 projects worth Rs 10367 Crores. Which ones are these? Going by the list on IDD website, these seem to be:

  1. Rail Link to BIAL / IDD / KSIIDC / Rs 5767.00 Cr / DPR Completed, RFQ Completed, 5 Consortium Shortlisted, RFP Issued on 15 Apr '10
  2. Monorail Project in Bangalore (40 km) / IDD / KSIIDC / Rs 3400.00 Cr / Feasibility & DPR under Preparation
  3. Transport & Logistics Monorail Project in Bangalore - Swiss Challenge (14 km) / IDD / KSIIDC / Rs 1200.00 Cr /Feasibility & DPR under Preparation

All 3 are already underway, isn't it? Are there any new MRTS projects coming up at the Global Investors Meet?

All the best GoK!

Regardless of the nitpicking above, here is wishing GoK all the best for the Global Investors Meet. Hope we will see a better listed, consistent, and track-able list of projects chasing investors. And look forward to crisp communication later on summit's achievements.

COMMENTS

Living in Karnataka

silkboard - 30 May, 2010 - 11:35

... is not all about Bangalore. Was susprised to see all Bangalore in the "Living and Leisure" page on advantage karnataka site (the portal for upcoming global investors summit). See here:  http://www.advantagekarnataka.com/living_lesisure.html

On the other hand, if you were to list the ten competitive advantages of Karnataka as a destination for investments, what would they be? Find State government's list here: http://www.advantagekarnataka.com/tencompetitive.html

(1st point listed as Knowledge Hub of Asia. See the botched up text talking about Korea instead. Looks like the website was put up in a hurry.)

Thanks ToI

silkboard - 1 June, 2010 - 10:28

So Times of India carried this report on GIM today that went with a very clear title - Bangalore to get very little of the investments being planned at GIM. Good to hear that, and let us wait for GIM to conclude.

dismal state of power sector

murali772 - 1 June, 2010 - 12:32

For the Rs 417 cr that it billed on an average every month (09-10 figures), KPCL (the generation company) is paid in 402 days, ie almost 13 and a half months later. The question that arises time after time is how is any industrialist in his right senses going to be investing in the state where the basic power infrastructure sector is in such a dismal state. So, what is this GIM all about? For more, click here
 

More information, thanks to newspapers

silkboard - 2 June, 2010 - 02:50

As always, one has to rely on newspapers even for factual information, just can't get it directly from the government websites Anyway.

Today's Times of India (page 21) has a couple of tables listing a lot of projects.

  • Total of investments showed as 346553.73 Crores.
  • Lion's share is Iron & Steel. 223848 Crorores. Almost 2/3rd of total "investment"
  • Power = 49487 Crores (matches with the 50K Crores mentioned on the GIM website)

More later. WE should get a flood of information anyway over next 2-3 days.

Wonder if these investments would really see single window clearance. How will the environmental clearances and land acquisition guarantees be given? I am sure GoK would have covered all this in their preparation for GIM.

No final figures yet

silkboard - 4 June, 2010 - 05:28

Good that the ideological talk around GIM has gone to Vinay's passionate note. Now, to track the numbers here.

  • Looks like they are saying 2.5 - 3 lakh crores right now.
  • Minister Nirani is on record, has said that "we know that only 50-60% of these will actally materialize, and over next 3-4 years".
  • Nothing much about any policy changes to enable such investment. Land acquisition, Environmental Clearance, transparency norms for PPPs
  • Not much clarity on how many of these are true PPPs.Will state have equity in these projects (via GoK providing land)?

So far - looks like KIADB will acquire land for these projects. Claims to have 65000 acre 'land bank' already. One quote from a news clip

"In Narasapur village of Kolar district, though the market value was 15-20 lakhs per acre, we paid Rs 30 lakhs."

Why on earth would KIADB do that? If they have the rights to overpay, god knows who the recepients are for these "overpayments" :)

PRAJA.IN COMMENT GUIDELINES

Posting Guidelines apply for comments as well. No foul language, hate mongering or personal attacks. If criticizing third person or an authority, you must be fact based, as constructive as possible, and use gentle words. Avoid going off-topic no matter how nice your comment is. Moderators reserve the right to either edit or simply delete comments that don't meet these guidelines. If you are nice enough to realize you violated the guidelines, please save Moderators some time by editing and fixing yourself. Thanks!