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Puravankara picks up Jayakar Jerome for infrastructure foray

The Economic Times
 

HIGH-PROFILE former bureaucrat Jayakar Jerome, who headed the Bangalore Development Authority (BDA) and is closely identified with infrastructure development in and around the city, has joined realty major Puravankara Group.

Mr Jerome will spearhead the Puravankaras’ proposed infrastructure foray, according to an industry source. Mr Jerome had retired in 2006 as secretary to the then Maharashtra governor S M Krishna.

“The Puravankara Group is looking to set up separate subsidiaries for infrastructure, hospitality as well as low income housing. Mr Jerome is likely to head the infrastructure division,” the source said. The Group declined to comment.

While the property-developer’s forte is residential construction, the emerging new focus comes as no surprise, given the huge potential for private sector participation in infrastructure development and related services. It is estimated that India needs investment of $500 billion in infrastructure during the 2007-12 Eleventh Five-Year Plan.

About a quarter of the investment is expected from the private sector. Mr Jerome is hailed as the person who rescued the BDA - responsible for the housing and infrastructure needs of Karnataka’s capital - from the doldrums.

The authority was in hibernation for more than a decade and was on the verge of being dissolved when Mr Jerome resuscitated it during the regime of Mr Krishna. The BDA went on to become the first statutory body in the country to be listed on the National Stock Exchange (NSE) with its nonconvertible bonds.

The authority’s Rs. 100-crore bond was fully subscribed within a few days of its opening in August 2002. Puravankara Projects (PPL), the real estate arm of the Puravanakara Group, registered an 86% jump in net profit to Rs 240.05 crore for the year ended March 31, 2008.