I just read today that Bangalore's new airport (hardly Bangalore's though.... Its closer to AP really) would be doing trial runs before being thrown open to junta soon.
This gladdened my heart on a particularly frustrating day when nothing else was working. Two reasons:
1. Its close to my apartment and will raise its price (not that I am selling).
2. Bangalore is in a CRYING need of something that is not an aircraft testing facility with a few customs guys milling around.
The little reading I did about the airport gave me the impression that some amount of thought and planning has gone into this venture. The chaps running this show give an impression that they know what they are doing and are serious about doing it properly. And looks like they are succeeding.
These days its not uncommon to get scraps of news like this which makes you feel glad about being an Indian. But if you think this through a bit, you realize that the reason a few things seem to be working out in India is because the private sector is jumping in the fray. The government's only contribution has been in unlocking the door and then going away.
The entrepreneurs have only one agenda: to make money. They go about it in a planned, professional fashion. If the Bangalore airport opens one day later, the promoters stand to lose a few crores of rupees in revenue. If the facilities or the people running them are less than world class, the airport stands to lose out on a lot of traffic from airline stop-overs (One must remember that Jet Airways had to make Brussels its traffic hub simply because they could not find an airport in India which could handle the traffic they would generate).
On the other hand, consider if the government had run this show. No one would have cared if the project fell behind schedule. No one would have bothered if the toilets stink (they do in Delhi and Mumbai). It would not have mattered because the cash cycle (airport loses money - government pays - tax payers foot the bill) is far too long and convoluted for anyone to see the effect.
I feel that the most incompetent outfit in India is the Government of India. It does far too many things and mostly does it all badly. In most of the cases, throw in private fellows and they will make a paying and efficient proposition of it. There are of course a few places where you cannot get rid of the government. Take maintenance of public law and order for instance.
What the MNS got away with in Mumbai and Pune takes my breath away. If this thing goes on, fifty years down the line we will have another partition of the country.
Upholding the rule of law, maintaining public order, delivering justice and education should be a few of the places where the government ought to concentrate on being competent. Not in running airports, defence labs, railways and steel plants.
2 comments:
I disagree with your characterization. I think you go back and forth between the role of the government and the actions of indian government. And I think your comments fit the role of indian governments. in practice, there are numerous examples of governments running public facilities like the airport (most european and american airports are governments run). in theory, i can go into a whole lot of microecon and public finance based arguments about why government should be allowed to provide naturally monopolistic services.
Also - I think someone should be able to raise your property taxes due to the rise in home value that you got from the airport constructions (a rise that you didn't particularly pay for and hence, don't deserve).
Anyway - enough of early morning market-bashing.
Chaks.
Agreed that quite a few governments do things quite competently. Singapore government is one shining example. But in the Indian milieu, where government (or rather political) intervention has almost always been disastrous, I think it will be much better if the private players are allowed to run more shows....
Your comment about increasing property tax was not really relevant to this discussion (If you must know, that has already happened).
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