Bangalore: 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 Karnataka Assembly recommended appropriate action against those, including Infosys mentor NR Narayana Murthy, involved in decision making.
The panel report, tabled in the Assembly 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).
The report 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 and said the project partners L&T, Siemens and Zurich should not be considered for entrusting any work by both governments or their agencies for a minimum period of five years.
L&T earlier this month exited the project by selling its 17 per cent shares to GVK Power and Infrastructure for a Rs 686 crore.
Besides, GVK and Zurich, Siemens of Germany hold 40 per cent holding in BIAL. Karnataka government and the Airports Authority hold 13 per cent each.
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 the result of such decisions.
The 21-member Committee, headed by Dr D Hemachandra Sagar, was formed in September last year after several members alleged that the infrastructure created in the airport did not match international standards.
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.
It said the Government of India should withdraw the order permitting BIAL to impose UDF (user development fee) of Rs 260 on passengers as BIAL has failed to provide adequate facilities of international standard to the users.
Bangalore is the first major aiport built under PPP after Cochin International Airport. 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 panel said.
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