Bengaluru with its tech-heavy companies and start-up boom accounted for 32 per cent of eight million square feet of office space up to Q2 of FY 2018, said Anshul Jain, Managing Director, Cushman & Wakefield.

Addressing a conference on infrastructure development, organised by CII Karnataka in association Cushman & Wakefield and themed ‘Impact of Technology on Infrastructure Development & Changing Workplace’, Jain said that in India around 35 million square feet of office space gets absorbed every year, that is 70 to 80 square feet per person, which translates into about 400,000 white-collar jobs created in the country every year.

Govt commitment

During the first half of FY 2018, shared workspace stock touched 8 million square feet in the top 8 cities in the country. While talking about logistics and warehousing, Jain said the Centre has committed ₹6 lakh crore in FY 18-19 for the sector. Muthukumar, Chairman, CII Karnataka, said that India requires an investment of more than ₹50 trillion ($ 777.73 billion) in infrastructure by 2022 to have sustainable development in the country. Sectors such as power transmission, roads & highways and renewable energy will drive the investments in the years to come.

Infra development

CII Karnataka Infrastructure Taskforce Convenor and Chairman & Managing Director, Bearys Group, Syed Mohammed Beary said that good infrastructure builds great countries and futuristic cities. “We build infrastructure after city development,” he said. Citing the example of Bengaluru, he said the city is ideally suited to be one of the best in the world, but it lacks the right infrastructure.

Beary proposed the involvement of financial institution in the development of infrastructure to augment the current PPP models. He said that investment in infrastructure can solve the job crisis in the country.

Kamal Bali, President & Managing Director Volvo Group India, said good infrastructure and logistics are the prerequisites for a healthy economy, and in this regard India has still a long way to go. According to him, in India the cost of logistics amounts to 14 per cent of the GDP as opposed to just 8 per cent in the rest of the world, resulting in wastage of $150 billion a year.

Satish Kamat, President, Sri City, said that urbanisation is a sign of a developing economy and providing the right infrastructure for a country that is rapidly urbanizing is of utmost importance as mistakes in infrastructure cannot be corrected easily.