Infrastructure Development and Role up Civil Society

- Mr. Nandkishor Kagliwal
President, MEDC

The 3rd MEDC Golden Jubilee lecture was delivered by the redoubtable Lord Meghnad Desai in Pune. The elite gathering represented a large cross section of the society comprising industrialists, economists, educationists, administrators and students. Lord Desai exhorted the Indian industry and business to become proactive and assertive in influencing the economic agenda of the nation. Lord Desai was highly critical of the quality of political governance in India. He said that our GDP growth could improve at least by 2%, if the quality of governance could improve.

In its first ever initiative, MEDC organized “Destination Maharahstra” at Bandra-Kurla complex in Mumbai on 9th, 10th and 11th January 2008, showcasing the industrial development of the State across the regions and sectors. The exhibition attracted participants from various sectors, more particularly from infrastructure, manufacturing, tourism and education. To coincide with the event, MEDC also organized two seminars namely “Infrastructure Development in Maharashtra” and “Transformation of Mumbai Metropolitan Region”

Although, MMR contributes to about 40 % of Maharashtra’s Gross State Domestic Product (GSDP) and accounts for about 5% of India’s GDP, the development of city’s infrastructure even for basic necessities has continued to languish. Lack of attention and investment have resulted into sharp decline in quality of life in Mumbai with over 38% of the population living in slums. As a result the commercial capital of the country has acquired the dubious distinction of being called the slum capital of India.

In the above context, it was heartening to learn that several projects are already crystalised and are at various stages of development and implementation for rejuvenation of Mumbai. Detailed and very impressive presentations were made by Mr Sanjeev Kumar, Jt CEO, MIDC on the “Role of MIDC in Industrial Infrastructure”, Mr SS Hussain, Chairman, Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust on “JNPT’s role in Maharashtra”, Mr PC Sehgal, Managing Director, Mumbai Rail Vikas Corporation on “Status and Proposals of Mumbai’s Railway System” and Dr Shankar Deshpande , Sr Project Officer, MUTP, MMRDA on “MMRDA’s Projects : Latest Status”. For summary of presentations, you may like to access the website of MEDC.

Infrastructure projects are capital intensive and have long gestation period requiring speed and transparency in decision making. MEDC for long has been advocating that Infrastructure Development Act (MIDAS Act) should be passed expeditiously. The Act provides a sound framework for speedy clearance of such projects in an orderly and transparent manner.

I believe that it is the responsibility of civil society to get actively involved in the process of development and insist on a quarterly progress report of at least ten major projects under each ministry and department right up to the level of municipal corporations and Zilla Parishads. The implementing agencies should come forth to publish such progress reports on quarterly basis not only in terms of outlays but also outcome. The media can play a positive role in obtaining such information and giving due publicity to such progress reports. It can be rightly said that continued vigilance by the civil society is truly the price of development.