Southern metros led by Bangalore, Hyderabad and Chennai have become the most favoured destinations for attracting infrastructure investments from corporates ahead of Mumbai , Delhi and Kolkata, an Assocham study said.The report "Indian Metros : pulling infrastructure investment" pointed out that the three southern capitals accounted for 70% of total private investments in infrastructure projects among six metros in India. Kolkata, Mumbai and Delhi accounted for the remaining 30%. As per the Assocham study, the private sector has bet Rs 33,161 crore on the southern metros compared to Rs 14,240 crore in other tier-I cities.

The southern metropolitan cities are less urbanized with a combined urban population of about 16 million compared to Mumbai (18 million), Delhi (18.7 million) and Kolkata (15 million), the Assocham study said. Assocham president Sajjan Jindal said: "Southern cities are attracting private attention towards infrastructure projects primarily due to better state policies, availability of talent due to engineering and business institutes , high literacy rates and rising per capita income ." The study said that even when the real estate sector across the country is facing problems, investments in realty projects have acquired highest share in overall infrastructure investments in the southern tier I cities.

Around 12 projects were announced by the private sector during last six months amounting to Rs 12,990 crore. Bangalore had a maximum of six realty projects while Hyderabad and Chennai had five and one respectively . The second highest investments are lined up for SEZs. As much as Rs 12,150 crore would be spent in developing five SEZs by the corporate sector in southern metropolitan cities.