DLF's KP Singh shares blueprint for making India infrastructure powerhouse

KP Singh, Chairman of DLF Limited

DLF chairman emeritus KP Singh shared a blueprint for making India an infrastructure powerhouse. He said India's $5 trillion GDP goal needs commensurate infrastructure and new cities need to come up.

"Govt should acquire land & private sector should develop the land parcel. India needs new cities; Noida is a good example," Singh told CNBC-TV18 in an interview.

The DLF patriarch underlined the importance of government acquiring land and auctioning it out to private sector for development of townships. He said the government can acquire land for highway infrastructure but not for townships. He said the development of townships should be done by the private sector through partnerships.

Singh also thinks that masterplans should be made by visionary people and developers and not by bureaucrats as they get transferred and are unable to develop a vision in a few years.

Singh lauded the Modi government's efforts in the last eight years but said that it would be wrong to say that a base for development wasn't created earlier.

"Decisiveness of this government in last eight years has changed the roadmap."

He hailed Modi government's efforts to scale pace of highways and expressways development and handling of the COVID crisis.

He said India is poised for reaching the pinnacle of development.

"Sky is the limit here," Singh added.

Singh said that the public sector should play the role of the enabler and facilitator and the private sector should step in to execute.

He praised India's entrepreneurs and said they are the best in the world.

“One, we have got an excellent 29-year average age of Indian workmen. And then we have got the highest talented entrepreneurs. Indian entrepreneurs are way better than any entrepreneurs in the world I've seen. They only need encouragement and empowerment to carry the business forward.”