Improve infrastrucutre to draw investments: MoS Defence

New Delhi, Dec 8 (UNI) Emphasising the importance of Facility Managment to draw investments in India, Minister of State for Defence M M Pallam Raju today urged the industries to come together for making world class infrastructure in the country.

''Facilities management is a solution trying to maximise real estate investment returns for the property,'' Mr Raju said.

Any city with well-managed airports, railway stations, roads, power and other utilities will enable investment and development and will create wealth, jobs, boosting the economic activity of the country, he said at the CII's second international conference on 'Facility Management' in the capital.

Facility Management is a profession that encompasses multi disciplines to ensure functionality of the built environment by integrating people, place, process and technology, Mr Raju explained.

He mentioned that facility managers are assigned a wide range of tasks in planning, designing and managing facilities. They are responsible for co-ordinating the physical workplace with the people and the work of an organisation.

Vipul Facility Management Pvt Ltd Vice President Nimish Malhotra said, ''The real-estate industry in India is estimated to be 90 million dollars by 2010. If we were to look at 30-35 per cent budget of any organisation towards asset and utilities, there are huge opportunities for the facility management industry in the coming years.'' A collective responsibility between the government as the facilitator, the private and the public sector will play a key role in driving the growth of this new and emerging sphere of facility management, the minister said.

Stressing on the armed forces, Mr Raju said that the industry could take lessons from the armed forces on the upkeep and maintenance of establishments.

He also opined that facility managers need to be empathetic to the needs of the physically challenged and added that special care should be given to their needs, while designing establishments at the conceptualisation stage.

He said that to maximise operations cost and to generate interest in professionals, facility management should be looked upon as a serious issue.

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