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Murthy, L&T and Siemens under fire over faulty design of Bangalore airport
A Karnataka house panel has slammed L&T, Siemens and Unique Zurich Airport for shoddy work at the Bangalore International Airport and recommended black listing them for a minimum period of five years.
A Karnataka house panel has slammed L&T, Siemens and Unique Zurich Airport for shoddy work at the Bangalore International Airport and recommended black listing them for a minimum period of five years.
A joint house panel of the Assembly recommended appropriate action against those, including Infosys mentor NR Narayana Murthy, involved in decision making.
The report, tabled on Monday, cited "poor quality" of workmanship, trading of shares for profit without showing an "iota of concern" for general public, entrusting all airport works among private players in Bengaluru International Airport Limited (BIAL).
It noted that one of the promoters of the BIAL, Unique Zurich Airport, Switzerland, made a huge profit by selling its 12 per cent (worth Rs 46.15 crore at the time of its investment 4 years ago) in the project for Rs 484.6 crore.
“The private promoter walked away with an over 1050 per cent return in just four years. This indicated that the private players have set their eyes on huge multiplication of their investment and have cut many corners for the sake of short-term profit,” the report said.
Infrastructure major GVK Group's subsidiary GVK Airport Developers, earlier this month had said it had bought Zurich's 12 per cent stake in BIAL for Rs 484.6 crore. The Bangalore airport built at a cost of Rs 2,470 crore was opened to the public in 2008.
The panel slammed "total apathy" towards users' needs.
