Ashok Kheny, A Visionary

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<iframe src="//ws-in.amazon-adsystem.com/widgets/q?ServiceVersion=20070822&OneJS=1&Operation=GetAdHtml&MarketPlace=IN&source=ac&ref=tf_til&ad_type=product_link&tracking_id=iconsofindi0b-21&marketplace=amazon&region=IN&placement=B07RHBV8XT&asins=B07RHBV8XT&linkId=a4bc9e079f8468f5c5cc63231bd6156f&show_border=true&link_opens_in_new_window=false&price_color=333333&title_color=0066c0&bg_color=ffffff"> </iframe>Shri.Ashok Kheny, born October 5, 1960, is an electrical engineer from National Institute of Technology, Suratkal, with an MS in Management Science & Engineering from Wooster Polytechnic College, Massachusetts. He worked with American firms, set up his own and then moved his work to Karnataka. His family is a huge landowner in Bidar - his great grandfather MaharudrappaKheny was mini royalty, rich enough to give loans to the Nizam of Hyderabad - and deeply rooted in politics.Reportedly Indira Gandhi visited his ancestral home in Ranjolkheni village.

Shri. Ashok Kheny’s family hails from a small village called RanjolKheni in Bidar District.He went to USA after completing his Engineering in Karnataka, to do his Master’s in Management Science and Engineering in 1974, from Worcester Polytechnic Institute, Massachusetts, USA.

Ashok Kheny became a very successful Entrepreneur in USA as he implemented several major Infrastructure projects in Transportation and Telecom sectors through his own company SAB Engineering and Constructions Inc. and Railway Systems Design Inc. 

 

For his achievements, in 1987, Mr. Ashok Kheny received the prestigious US Presidential award from Ronald Reagan, viz., “Outstanding Businessman of the Year of a Minority Community Award”. He also received the “Fellow Award” from the World Academy of Productive Sciences, Canada.

 

When India inched towards Economic liberalization in early 90’s, Mr. Ashok Kheny decided to come back to India to serve the nation towards gearing up to the Global challenge in the provision of Physical Infrastructure.By that time, the Karnataka State Government had repeatedly envisioned (From 1950’s) that Bangalore should have fast corridors integrated with self-sustained counter magnets.

But all its proposals remained on paper, till Mr. Ashok Kheny mystically took a great initiative with strong-will to implement various projects like the “Bangalore Mysore Infrastructure Corridor Project (BMICP)” on BOOT basis and the “Hubli-Dharwad Bypass”- which is the first BOT project in the country.He also built a large Engineering design team that facilitated the above in-house projects as well as, hundreds of Government projects in Highway and structural Engineering.

 

Ashok Kheny an avid sportsman and a cricketer himself during his days wanted to invigorate the Cricket at State level’s and is the Chairman of “CELEBRITY CRICKET LEAUGE”. The State teams across the Country involves the Cine artists from all over the country.Every year the tournaments are conducted and the Reel Life Actors participate in the tournament giving more joy the citizens of the country.

In 1992, he married Rita, an Italian-American, and a few months later his father died. The following year, Kheny travelled to India and was taking his mother to visit Mysore, when, he says, he got the idea of building the road. The state highway linking Bangalore and Mysore was in bad shape, he says, and back in Bangalore he complained about the state of the road at a dinner where there were government officials present. Kheny says they told him that it was common among people who had gone abroad to complain about the infrastructure back home. “Why don’t you do something about it?" he says they told him. The NICE office is overlooked by a 60-foot billboard of himself and its front hall is decorated with pictures of the boss acting in various movie roles, including one in which he played a bygone king—complete with a turban and a large moustache—in an improbable rebirth drama.

 

 

Ashok Kheny was inducted into the Congress party in 2018. Karnataka unit Congress president G Parameshwara and senior party leader D K Shivakumar welcomed Kheny, into the party. Kheny, who has had a running feud with former Prime Minister H D Deve Gowda and his family for more than two decades over an expressway and infrastructure corridor project between Bengaluru and Mysuru, was elected MLA in 2013 as candidate of his own party — Karnataka Makkala Paksha.Stating that Kheny joined the Congress “without any preconditions”, Parameshwara said, “He is merging the Karnataka Makkala Paksha into the Congress. With his entry, the Congress will benefit in six Assembly constituencies in Bidar district (in north Karnataka).”

 

Kheny, after having observed that in the North Karnataka region, the implementation of the Government program’s are poor, because of the non-stability of Bureaucracy (Seeks transfer within Short-Term period) - due to which there is lack of awareness of the Socio-Spatial attributes of the villages and the region and thus contributing to the non-effectiveness in the implementation of various policies and programs of the Government. Also, the funds get released in the last quarter of the year. He says “I reaffirm my commitment to stand by all the sections of our people in the Constituency irrespective of their caste, creed or religion, with a special emphasis on Children and Women welfare. I shall also ensure the protection of the Culture, Flora and Fauna in my Constituency comprising of 124 village settlements vis-a-vis creation of “Sustainable / Smart Villages”, as these are akin to my strong belief that cities can function more effectively in harmony and coherence only if ‘Smart Villages” are created. He adds “I am determined to wholeheartedly work on my “Panchapeeta vision”- “Water, Power, Education, Health and Roads”, the harbinger of real time “Smart Village” rather than on utopian concepts.

 

Speaking at the foundation stone laying ceremony of the girls hostel, Ashok Kheny, the Mangaing Director of NICEL, said that girl students coming from rural areas undergo a lot of harassment when they come to cities to pursue higher studies as they cannot find suitable accommodation.Kheny said that he would donate his entire profit from various projects in India for the education and health sectors in the state, and for the upliftment of the poor.