Bangalore: A plan to improve the public transport system in Bangalore will be unveiled in a month, Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy has said.

He was delivering the presidential address at the International Information and Communication Technology conference organised by the World Customs Organisation here on Thursday.

Mr. Kumaraswamy said the Government would do everything within its means "to help the information technology (IT) industry and Brand Bangalore to grow, develop and flourish."

The Government was taking action to resolve infrastructure problems in the city, he said.

Mr. Kumaraswamy regretted the fact that Bangalore's infrastructure had been equated with problems relating to roads and traffic. "In areas such as power supply, Bangalore's infrastructure is more than adequate," he said. The Government had spent over Rs. 500 crore on improving power distribution in Bangalore. The line losses were less than 10 per cent and the reliability factor 99.01 per cent, he said.

JBIC aid

"No other metropolitan city in the country can compete with these figures. The Government will be shortly receiving assistance from the Japan Bank for International Cooperation to improve power supply and upgrade the reliability factor from 99.01 per cent to 99.68 per cent," he said.

The Government had taken a number of steps to promote the IT industry, including setting up of a hi-tech city off Sarjapur Road, an electronic hardware park close to the upcoming Bangalore International Airport, and earth stations and incubation centres in satellite towns in and around Bangalore.

Mr. Kumaraswamy said the police were working on a programme to improve the traffic situation. "We will be setting up a Central Control Room which will monitor the traffic situation at more than 200 junctions. Work is also in progress for installing an intelligent signalling system that will considerably reduce the stoppage time at various junctions," he said.

"I welcome the growth of the IT industry in the country and would like Karnataka to contribute to the growth of the IT industry in the same measure as it has done in the past," he added.

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