MUMBAI: CNBC-TV18 and Infosys Technologies undertook an initiative to reawaken the State and Central Government to meet the Infrastructure demands of Mumbai by organising the second in the series of discussions on 'Infrastructure and the City.'     

The 'Infrastructure and the City' discussions are a series of debates bringing together eminent citizens, representatives of concerned corporates and government representatives to discuss and arrive at a beneficial action plan for improving infrastructure in cities like Mumbai, Bangalore and Delhi.

'Infrastructure and the City: Focus on Mumbai' brought out issues related to Governance framework, Civic administration, Roads and Public Transport, Housing and Social Infrastructure. Elements like Ports, Water Supply, IT and Telecom Infrastructure, Planning and preservation of public spaces, amenities and coastal ecosystem, were also discussed with an aim to generate implementable recommendations and thus coerce the State and Central Government to take swift action on infrastructure development, critical to the development of Mumbai.

Participating in the discussions were eminent personalities like Tata Teleservices Ltd chairman Firdose Vandrevala, Government of Maharashtra secretary (special projects) General Administrative Department Sanjay Ubale, MMRDA joint commissioner T Chandrashekhar, National Slum Dwellers Federation and Ramon Magsaysay Award winner Jokin, Urban Infrastructure Expert architect Charles Correa, IDFC former MD Nasser Munjee (currently with the Infrastructure Advisory team, KPMG), Hindustan Construction Company CMD Ajit Gulabchand, CMD, Konkan Railways managing director MB Rajaram and Infosys' Mohandas Pai.

The first 'Infrastructure and the City' discussion was also held in New Delhi, on 2 December with Delhi chief minister Sheila Dikshit inaugurating and participating in the forum. The 'Infrastructure and the City' forums will travel throughout the country to all major metropolitan cities, in an attempt to bring together citizens, representatives of concerned corporates and government representatives who genuinely make a difference to the cities infrastructure. The forums will be part of the ongoing effort at maintaining active dialogue between various stakeholders in a city. These dialogues will be structured around sub-themes specific to the city.

Speaking at the forum, a CNBC-TV18 spokesperson said, "We at CNBC TV18 believe that corporate India needs to exert pressure on local governments and the center to give greater attention to cities, which should translate into greater budgetary allocations, more accountability of public service providers, greater competition in basic services, investments in roads, public transport and other civic infrastructure and above all, revamping the governance structure to improve social and physical infrastructure in cities."

This initiative will be followed up regularly on CNBC-TV18 by way of special programs from time to time that will bring to light, city specific problems and solutions for the benefit of the national audience.