Ashok Kheny - Krishna's proaction and grand vision
A Krishna type of person is someone who takes risks and attempts to realize a grand and powerful vision in the face of great odds. Always the vision is something new and is about bringing something into manifestation that has not existed before. In my book 'The Avatar Way of Leadership" I have referred to Dhirubhai Ambani as an archetype of Krishna.
In the recent spat between Mr. Narayan Murthy of Infosys and Mr. Deva Gowda I came across reference to Mr. Ashok Kheny who is the architect of the Bangalore-Mysore Infrastructure Corridor. This is a gigantic project involving the construction of 164-km string of expressways and five townships. Its due to cost Rs 2000 crore and is India’s first private infrastructure project to build inter-city expressways combined with world-class townships.
The corridoor will open an 8 km expressway out of Bangalore converting an hour-long drive into a five-minute one. The project will also have a 400 MW power plant, water and sewage systems.
Ashok Kheny had first approached the state government with the idea in 1995. He fully realized that Bangalore had the potential to grow exponentially. He told the state govt that Bangalore's IT skills would be worth $10 billion a year and was laughed out outright in the corridoors of power. However since he was willing to back his contention with his money, he was given the go-ahead and Kheny founded the Nandi Infrastructure Corridor Enterprise with the help of the Kalyani group. Kheny was able to get the backing of several banks - ICICI, Central Bank of India, Punjab National Bank, State Bank of Patiala and State Bank of Mysore.
Then started the painstaking process of getting the approvals and the land. In ten years the project has had to gain a mind-boggling 10,500 government approvals with over twenty thousand landholders being compensated. Between 1998 and 2003, there were public hearings and environmental clearances along with toll-franchise and land lease agreements signed.
The entire project is now in the fire due to the politics of Mr.Gowda who is playing the role of one of the opponents of Lord Krishna in this modern saga. That cannot minimise the achievements of Mr.Kheny. Mr.Kheny may justly be seen as exemplifying the risk taking and visionary abilities of Lord Krishna .
An account of Kheny's work and challenges especially the menace posed by the politics of Gowda is found in the following articles published in the Indian Express. This piece on Mr.Kheny is based on information from these two articles:
1. Lost Expressway Part - 1 by Samar Halarnkar, Indian Express, Sunday, October 23, 2005 http://www.indianexpress.com/print.php?content_id=80596
2. Lost Expresway, Part - 3 by Samar Halarnkar, Indian Express, Tuesday, October 25, 2005http://www.indianexpress.com/full_story.php?content_id=80729
In the recent spat between Mr. Narayan Murthy of Infosys and Mr. Deva Gowda I came across reference to Mr. Ashok Kheny who is the architect of the Bangalore-Mysore Infrastructure Corridor. This is a gigantic project involving the construction of 164-km string of expressways and five townships. Its due to cost Rs 2000 crore and is India’s first private infrastructure project to build inter-city expressways combined with world-class townships.
The corridoor will open an 8 km expressway out of Bangalore converting an hour-long drive into a five-minute one. The project will also have a 400 MW power plant, water and sewage systems.
Ashok Kheny had first approached the state government with the idea in 1995. He fully realized that Bangalore had the potential to grow exponentially. He told the state govt that Bangalore's IT skills would be worth $10 billion a year and was laughed out outright in the corridoors of power. However since he was willing to back his contention with his money, he was given the go-ahead and Kheny founded the Nandi Infrastructure Corridor Enterprise with the help of the Kalyani group. Kheny was able to get the backing of several banks - ICICI, Central Bank of India, Punjab National Bank, State Bank of Patiala and State Bank of Mysore.
Then started the painstaking process of getting the approvals and the land. In ten years the project has had to gain a mind-boggling 10,500 government approvals with over twenty thousand landholders being compensated. Between 1998 and 2003, there were public hearings and environmental clearances along with toll-franchise and land lease agreements signed.
The entire project is now in the fire due to the politics of Mr.Gowda who is playing the role of one of the opponents of Lord Krishna in this modern saga. That cannot minimise the achievements of Mr.Kheny. Mr.Kheny may justly be seen as exemplifying the risk taking and visionary abilities of Lord Krishna .
An account of Kheny's work and challenges especially the menace posed by the politics of Gowda is found in the following articles published in the Indian Express. This piece on Mr.Kheny is based on information from these two articles:
1. Lost Expressway Part - 1 by Samar Halarnkar, Indian Express, Sunday, October 23, 2005 http://www.indianexpress.com/print.php?content_id=80596
2. Lost Expresway, Part - 3 by Samar Halarnkar, Indian Express, Tuesday, October 25, 2005http://www.indianexpress.com/full_story.php?content_id=80729
posted by Harsh | 8:28 PM
3 Comments:
Pls read the report on this project in The Hindu dated 24th January 2007. It clearly exposes the "Real Intention" of NICE and Mr. Ashok Kheny.
If I am given ownership to sell Government acquired lands at rock bottom prices at prevailing Market prices on each side of the Toll road even before completion of the toll road PLUS enjoy 30 years of toll collection before handing over the toll roads back, I am ready to undertake similar projects all over India.
Srinivas
Any report from the communist rag The Hindu has even less credibility than the Peoples Daily
Folks,
I had the good fortune of watching an interview of Mr.Kheny on a local tele news channel - HATS OFF TO THAT MAN !!!
A gigantic project such as this requires a man with unquestionable intent. Pl note,making money is no crime as long as the means are ethical(or near-ethical, considering the well known & heartwrenching Indian political system)
Its only a matter of time when more educated Indians who are frustrated with the sad state of infrastrucutre bulldoze the F@$&!*# politicians and make way for heroes like Kheny.
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