Karnataka's hinterland upbeat on dimension-changing event

All 30 districts of Karnataka have their eyes set on the two-day Global Investors Meet (GIM) 2010, which commenced here on Thursday.

The districts were pulling out all stops in the hope of attracting investments. Some of them were even offering to raise additional revenues to help investors.

Karnataka has been expecting nearly 400 investors to sign memoranda of understanding for several projects with an envisaged investment of Rs3.5 lakh crore during the mega event.
Almost 95% of the envisaged investments were likely to be made in peri-urban and rural areas.

The investments would translate to employment generation, infrastructure development and hastened urbanisation.
Instead of concentrating on the three main centres, Mangalore, Mysore and Bangalore, other districts were hoping that investors would help the spread of IT and Biotech to other parts of the state.

While welcoming increased investments in rural areas, deputy commissioner KG Jagdish of the newly formed Yadgir district said all help wound be extended to investors, including even raising additional revenues.

The district has been more or less left untouched by industrialisation. Unemployment was rampant since agriculture was the only source of income.

“When there is little or no rainfall in a year, no jobs are created,” he said.

India experienced deficit rain the past year, the worst in 37 years.
Jagdish said industrialisation would assure jobs to at least one of two members in each family.

“It will also prevent rural-urban migration,” he said.

He expressed confidence that Yadgir’s environment was conducive for investment. “We have all the necessary resources. We are strategically located, 160 km from the River Krishna. The River Bhima runs through the district. Our land is largely not irrigated, and hence there is plenty of space for the setting up of large industries.”

Gulbarga's deputy commissioner Vishal R sounded upbeat and said, “GIM is a dimension-changing event.”

He was expecting investments between Rs20,000 and Rs30,000 would be made in his district. He said that new industries and the power sector were likely to benefit from the investment.

A Rs80,000 crore power project was being implemented, besides setting up of 10 cement factories. The district was having 11,000 million metric tons of Gulbarga limestone available for quarrying and one-seventh of the mineral resources of the entire country, as well as a good water supply.

Vishal hoped that Gulbarga would become a tourism destination as well, with the inauguration of an airport and a Rs245 crore, 150 km road connecting the district with Andhra Pradesh.

The deputy commissioner said his district could provide power and reliable connectivity to attract investments.

Earlier, the Gulbarga city corporation had received a Rs100 crore infrastructure project from the state government.

(Inputs by Apoorva Sundar, Samanvita Shetty and Keshav Krishnamurty)