Angry voters

A similar voter backlash happened in Andhra Pradesh in 2004, where a pro-IT party was thrown out by angry voters, increasing feelings in India that being pro-tech was not a way to win power.

As Kheny talked, aides remarked how it took 10 minutes to cross the road to the upmarket hotel for the interview, such was the dense traffic and lack of road crossings.

Kheny returned to India in 1995 after 15 years in the United States to build a highway and townships that would connect Bangalore with the city of Mysore 110km away. It was a landmark deal, India's first privately funded highway.

But more than 338 lawsuits later and vocal opposition from Deve Gowda, leader of Janata Dal (S), the consortium has still finished less than 50 percent of the work. The project may now cost around US$1 billion due to cost overruns.

Bangalore is still booming. Malls and offices sprout up. But the worry is that the pace of the boom is outstripping infrastructure to a degree that companies may move elsewhere.

Faced with infrastructure bottlenecks and rising real estate costs, firms like Infosys Technologies, India second-largest software services exporter, and India's top biotechnology firm Biocon - which both have their headquarters in Bangalore - are mulling expansion projects outside the city.

Last month, Infosys said it would invest around US$120 million in a new development centre in the eastern city of Kolkata.

"Nothing has been done in the last 4-5 years and we're worried Bangalore will lose competitiveness. Companies are expanding to other places," said Raghavendra Shastry, head of Getit Infomediary Ltd, the Yellow Pages publisher in Bangalore, adding some companies were now eyeing Manila for outsourcing.

"And it's not Bangalore that will lose business, it's India."

It is the microcosm of a wider problem in Asia's third largest economy, where poor infrastructure has investors worried it will soon slow India's breakneck economic growth.

Still, businesses were not about to give up their city.

"I'm always optimistic," said Capt. G.R. Gopinath, Vice- Chairman of Deccan Aviation.

"As the saying goes, business always succeeds if you have great inspiration and a lack of resources."

(Shanghai Daily June 2, 2008)