A Karnataka house panel has recommended black-listing of infrastructure majors L&T, Siemens and Unique Zurich Airport for a minimum of five years for “poor quality of workmanship” at the Bangalore International Airport.
A joint house committee of the Karnataka Assembly has also recommended “appropriate action” against those, including Infosys mentor N.R. Narayana Murthy, involved in the decision making process.
The report, tabled in the Assembly on Monday, cited ‘poor quality’ of workmanship, trading 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) for its recommendations.
It slammed “total apathy” towards users’ needs and said the project partners, L&T, Siemens and Zurich, should not be considered for any work by both the Government and its agencies for at least five years.
The committee said the decisions at each stage (right from project approval to construction) were not in accordance with the expectation of a world-class airport, and the present state of affairs is an outcome of such decisions.
Giving a list of officers involved in important decisions for initiating “appropriate action”, it mentioned Infosys Chief Mentor Narayana Murthy, who was BIAL Chairman till 2005 and Rajiv Chandrasekhar, Chairman and CEO, BPL Innovations Business Group as also officials of the civil aviation ministry, Airport Authority of India and state agencies.
The Committee was set up to examine the lapses and suggest measures for improving the airport, which became operational in May last year, to international standards.
Further, the panel said Centre and State governments should not consider the release of any amount to BIAL, till its recommendations are met and the amount of Rs 100.26 crore following reduction of project cost, is refunded by BIAL.
The panel's anguish at the state of affairs in the airport and 'unresponsive' attitude of the management had reached a stage of recommending the termination of the contract (with BIAL),it said.
"The committee, however, keeping in view the larger interest of the state, restrained such a move," and advised the Government to be more careful in committing facilities at the huge cost to the public without any controlling powers.
Referring to the BIA, the panel said it appears that sometimes, the PPP (public-private-partnership) is not a boon, it's a bane. “The oddly managed Bangalore International Airport is a testimony to that. BIAL have come up with patchy, non-scientific and thoughtless solutions that left the public high and dry,” the report said.
It said the Government should form a high-power technical committee consisting of government officers and technical experts from private field to review periodically the deficiencies and empower the Committee to recommend and implement corrective measures to achieve the international standards.
