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Premji threatens protest for better infrastructure

July 18, 2003 18:52 IST

Wipro chairman Azim PremjiInfotech czar Azim Premji on Friday virtually threatened to hold a protest rally if the government did not improve the road infrastructure and power situation in Sarjapur area on the outskirts of Bangalore, where the corporate headquarters of his company, Wipro Limited, are housed.

At a news conference in Bangalore, Premji, chairman of the New York Stock Exchange-listed Wipro Ltd, took potshots at the government and civic authorities, blaming them for non-investment in the area, which has become 'bottlenecked.'

"Travelling on the Sarjapur Road is quite a hazard and there have been multiple accidents," he said.

Premji said the company did not have plans to set up a development centre or business process outsourcing facility on Wipro's premises here as the existing systems could not support such a venture.

He said power cuts were rampant. "It's a major embarrassment when power fails four times in one hour during discussions with clients."

According to him, commercial buildings and residential localities were coming up at a rapid pace, choking the area. "If things went on at this pace, traffic on the road would come to a halt in the next one to one-and-a-half years."

Recalling that software companies had resorted to a morcha (protest) years ago, seeking better infrastructure in the Electronic City, he commented: "We are heading for a similar situation."

On Thursday, at the Gartner Summit in Mumbai, Infosys chief N R Narayana Murthy too said that development of infrastructure, which is one of the most visible signs of progress, is needed to attract foreign direct investment to India, as IT alone cannot help in achieving President A P J Abdul Kalam's 'Vision 2020.'


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