Liquor baron and United Breweries Group chairman Vijay Mallya joined the chorus on Monday against Bangalore's crumbling infrastructure and called for swift action by the government. "Being a Bangalorean myself, I am pretty ashamed of the state of affairs," he said.
Mallya recalled how when he landed in Hong Kong on September 14, he got hold of an international newspaper that carried a front-page article completely damning Bangalore's infrastructure. "That's pretty sad," he said.
His comments come days after IT companies and the state government agreed to end the war of words over the city's infrastructure problems. The firms also agreed to take part next month in the state's annual showpiece IT event, which they had threatened to boycott over the government's 'indifference' to create better infrastructure.
Mallya termed Bangalore's infrastructure as 'certainly hopelessly inadequate' and 'highly depressing'. He wondered why the government is not swinging into action and trying to improve infrastructure in a time-bound manner by taking those involved to task.
"Bangalore needs a complete makeover," he said, adding, that the Centre also needs to allocate resources for improving infrastructure here, as Bangalore has largely become the IT and BT capital of the country, securing valuable foreign exchange.
When an international newspaper carries such an article, it is not a slap on the face of Bangalore and Karnataka, but on the face of India, felt the Rajya Sabha member, who also said he would raise the city's infrastructural problems in Parliament.