Corporate demand for land skyrockets

Land demand: can govt meet IT?
KIADB Plans To Double Industrial Area Within 2 Years
Times of India

Bangalore still has its IT: In an effort to address the spiralling demand for infrastructure from IT-Electronics sector, the Karnataka Industrial Areas Development Board (KIADB) has drawn up plans to double the available industrial area in and around the city within two years.

Land is already being snapped up almost as soon as it has been developed by the tech-czars. Consider this: There is no land available in either the Export Promotion Industrial Park (EPIP) in Whitefield or in all three phases of Electronic City, while hardly 50 acres is left in the recently acquired and developed Bommasandra-Jigani area. Industries minister P.G.R. Sindhia told The Times of India: “Obviously, there is no question of IT going away from Bangalore. The enthusiasm is still there and we are doing our best to satisfy the needs and demands of all genuine technocrats.’’

On anvil are huge acquisition plans by the KIADB: Following additional land surveys in the Bommasandra-Jigani area, preliminary notifications are to be issued for about 400 to 600 acres of land; within a week, final notifications are to be issued for 190 acres for Electronic city phase IV in Anekal taluk, which has been stalled for three years due to reported machinations of land developers in the area; and in addition, another 250 acres are to be notified on the other side of the NH-4 (Hosur road), behind Electronic City phase III.

“We are looking to develop the entire stretch between Electronic City phase IV and the Bommasandra-Jigani area as a huge tech hub,’’ KIADB member (executive) B.A. Harish Gowda explained. This kind of development will naturally need back-up in terms of approach roads. The planning, this time, appears to have been more comprehensive than earlier: the elevated road on stilts planned by the Centre over the Hosur road has come as a blessing to the additional development, while the KIADB will itself build a 150-foot wide, 4 km road from Hosur road to Jigani.

But the other plan — of linking the two technology hubs of Electronic City with Whitefield in a IT-corridor, as per Singapore’s Jurong Town Corporation (JTC) blueprint — has not proceeded beyond the basic paperwork. The government is said to be mulling over whether to give the nodal responsibility to the BDA or the KIADB, while a relook is also being taken on the extent of land needed for the project.