Addressing top officials of the Karnataka government, Manmohan Singh said, "Karnataka in many ways is the pride of India. I think Karnataka has been a pace setter in development in several ways."
"In the last ten to fifteen years, the achievements of Bangalore have done us all very proud and the fact that India is such a hot investment story all over the world for its tremendous reservoir of creativity, excellent spirit of adventure and enterprise," he observed.
Agreeing that Bangalore needs top class infrastructure facilities, Singh said "I also feel, the great city of Bangalore needs far more efficient infrastructure. It is absolutely essential that we all should work together to give Bangalore a top class infrastructure," he said and assured support to the ambitious Metro project.
He complimented the Chief Minister for the speed with which he has moved to resolve various outstanding issues on International airport project and promised that the Centre would work actively with state to make the project operational as per the set deadline.
In his welcome address at a function organised to give a visual presentation on various infrastructure projects of the state to the Prime Minister, Dharam Singh urged the Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to sanction Rs 14,400 crore (Rs 144 billion) special assistance, including a Rs 6,000 crore (Rs 60 billion) package for infrastructure development.
The Chief Minister also urged the Centre to make available credit to farmers at an interest rate of not more than six per cent to enable the state achieve the country's aim of doubling agricultural credit.
Thanking the Prime Minister for the clearances given to the Bangalore International Airport Project, he sought speedy approval for the Bangalore Metro Project.