Cameron sells 1000 km dream highway with lakhs of jobs

Mumbai, Feb 18: Coming with one of the largest business team British Prime Minister David Cameron is selling a 1000 km dream highway from Mumbai to Bangalore to generate close to half a million jobs. It comes with catch, doing business with British companies.

Cameron wanted British firms to work with the Indian and British governments to develop nine districts to link the country's financial capital Mumbai with nation's Silicon city Bangalore.

Landing in Mumbai on a three-day official visit, Cameron said "I've got architects, planners and finance experts who can work out the complete solution."

"It would unleash India's potential along the 1,000 km from Mumbai to Bangalore, transforming lives and putting British businesses in prime position to secure valuable commercial deals."

These new cities and districts along the 1,000 km corridor between Mumbai and Bangalore would attract investment projects worth up to $25 billion.

Giving details of the plan at a lecture, the British prime minister said the first phase of the project would involve investment in physical infrastructure, such as transport networks, telecommunications and power generation. Later construction would concentrate on social infrastructure such as welfare and education.

The British government would be willing to co-fund a feasibility study, on a match funding basis, with the Indian government costing up to one million pounds.

By 2030, if realised, the project could generate close to half a million jobs, while indirect jobs could bring the total in the region to two million, Cameron's office said.

"Our initial scoping work suggests that accommodating the 3-4 million people attracted to each of the new cities would require close to 1 million new homes, up to 120 schools, 10 colleges and hospitals," the office said.

His office said forecasts showed 5.8 percent of India's population growth would be in the corridor, contributing 11.8 percent of the country's gross domestic product growth by 2020.

To build this kind of trade relations Britain planned to change the visa system to allow Indian business people to get a visa in one day.

OneIndia News