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Kiran Mazumdar's reply to Mr. CN Kumar
Written By Devesh - 20 May, 2008
BIAL Bangalore BIAL HAL Airport Close Aviation
After taking her permission, I post the reply from Ms. Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw to Mr. C.N. Kumar's post http://bangalore.praja.in/comment/reply/731/4250#comment-4250.
Dear Mr. Kumar,
You can call us hypcrites and any other names you choose. The fact is that we were not aware of the fact that there was an exclusivity clause that banned a 2nd Airport within 150 KMs of Bangalore for 30 years! We started with a connectivity issue which obviously became apparent only when we actually initiated an exercise to reach BIAL from various parts of the city. This process started almost a year ago when we had a squabbling coalition government followed by Governor's rule. To say that we are hypocrites is grossly unfair. We like the rest of Bangalore assumed that the Government was addressing the connectivity issues to BIAL and believed their statements in good faith. I have personally on several occaisions raised this issue to the Chief Minister who assured me that the Government was giving it their top priority. The actual facts became apparent only when a group of us conducted actual travel to BIAL from various parts of the city. What started as a connectivity issue soon also threw up capacity issues and finally cost issues like UDF. I find it rather surprising that you choose to blame us for the BIAL fiasco whereas in effect the Government and all the stakeholders have not brought up these issue to the fore. Even BIAL has not been forthcoming about sharing the basis on which they sought the concessions provided by the Government. The fact that there was no exit clause for exclusivity is something that is shocking. If a project needs to be made viable through guarantees this is perfectly understandable. However, all legal agreements have exit clauses that break the exclusivity if certain conditions to assure its financial viability are met. The BIAL agreement was found to be unviable based on the passenger traffic projections that were based on the baseline traffic at the time the project was tendered. The 2010 projections were exceeded in 2008 itself. This certainly makes a strong case to break the exclusivity that banned a second airport. Unfortunately the agreement does not provide for this and in fact has an exclusivity in perpetuity! To say that contractual obligations are being compromised is one thing but to challenge an unfair agreement is another. hence the only recourse we had was to file a PIL. Sir, this is not about "head honchos" versus the common man. This is about compromising Bangalore's economic future and Bangalorean's quality of life. Please understand that given the number of projects that are on going viz. The Bangalore Metro, BIAL etc. the city is going to be almost unlivable unless we take urgent measures to decongest the traffic, build new roads and upgrade existing roads and take steps to deal with the traffic diversions that the Bangalore Metro project will entail. I don't think citizens have taken all this into consideration. We are all looking at a crisis waiting to happen. Retaining HAL airport addresses both connectivity and capacity issues in an effective way. Splitting domestic air passenger traffic between North and South Bangalore will certainly decongest the city's traffic especially at a time when a number of roads will be dug up for the Metro rail project. Either you can be armchair critics and point fingers at those that atleast try and act on what they think is an avoidable siutation. We do realize that it is a thankless job and it is sad that people like you criticize us for the efforts we are making. Since this is the reaction of fellow citizens, we will desist from any further efforts and let everyone suffer the consequences. Don't then tell us that we did not try. There I rest my case. Regds, Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw
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Regards
Devesh R. Agarwal
Visit my aviation blog at http://aviation.deveshagarwal.com
COMMENTS
V_menon - You hit Nail on the head!
narayan82 - 21 May, 2008 - 09:44
tsubba - 20 May, 2008 - 20:33
{Important] A mixed up campaign, want to get it right.
silkboard - 20 May, 2008 - 17:15
Devesh, as I said earlier, you folks have not 'managed' this campaign well, and good intentions have been miscommunicated to the extent that good meaning citizens are now calling each other "hypocrites" and "armchair critics". Why couldn' t you folks have filed two separate PILs, one for calling a revisit of the concession agreement, and another for keeping HAL open due to govt's failures on connectivity!?
Govt not operating and communicating its operations and intentions clearly enough is one thing, but a group claiming to represent the citizens not doing a good job of managing its communications (and mixing up its intentions) is another.
Referring to the "miss" in noticing the concession agreement - not to blow our own trumpet, but may be that is why we need things like praja.in.
When an industry body tries to rally for citizen's causes, hopes get raised as the body consists of esteemed names like Mrs Shaw and so many others. That leads to higher expectations, and deeper scrutiny than of the government itself. That leads to exaggerated reactions (hypocrites, honchos etc), so please do ignore some unnecessary flak you may have taken here..
Correspondingly, Mrs Shaw, before you call some of us here armchair critics, please do realize that we have limited resources and reach, we aren't CEOs and execs yet. When you folks fail to push through the things you said you try, imagine the effort we have to put in to make things move or bring change.[BTW, Naveen and I had been to CityConnect to talk possibilities of CityConnect 'using' praja.in site to 'communicate' and help convert some 'potentials' to 'activists'. The response, the way we interpreted it, was not encouraging at all.]
In the end, it is only sad, that an almost legitimate campaign by well-meaning folks, (who happen to be top managers and leaders) has been mismanaged and mixed up. Your good luck that there is no politics possible on this thing due to elections, otherwise some politicos would have used this to split us citizens and eaten some of us for lunch.
I can say some more, but would risk being mis-read and mis-represented. Perhaps, Mr Devesh, if you could organize a meeting between some Praja members and Mrs Shaw or CityConnect, we can bring back the 'redo BIAL agreement' and 'need a second airport' campaigns back on track.
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