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Bangalore's struggle to overcome its chronic problems with infrastructure suffered another setback lately as the businessman overseeing the construction of a long-delayed international airport walked out.
The new airport at Devanhalli, near Bangalore in Karnataka state, was conceived in 1991 but has lost the confidence of its main market, the city's IT and software community, after running into political obstacles that have pushed its opening date back to 2008.
Bangalore, which harbours about 70 per cent of Indian IT companies and has become the symbol of the new Indian economy, has suffered from a flight of businesses to other cities.
In his resignation letter to the chief minister of Karnataka state, N.R. Narayana Murthy, who as chairman of Infosys is one of India's leading businessmen, said he had left his part-time oversight role after being publicly criticised for his "lack of contribution" to the airport project over the previous five years.
Mr Murthy said he was pained that the government had not defended him after he was attacked by Deve Gowda, a former Indian prime minister who has also been calling for probes into grants of land to IT companies in Bangalore, including Infosys.
"I wish he had asked me personally before going to the press," Mr Murthy wrote. "I have spent enormous amounts of time and energy in interacting with the government in New Delhi and the government here to make this work."
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