Unauthorised buildings to be razed by BMP

Unauthorised buildings to be razed by BMP

Deccan Herald

A number of roads in the City will be widened, starting with Hosur Road around the Langford Town area, said the BMP Commissioner.



Expect more demolitions of unauthorised buildings and buildings with by-law violations over the next two weeks. The Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BMP) is all set to carry out demolition threats, bouyed by clearances from the courts to go ahead with demolitions in over 200 cases where land was required for road-widening and other projects.

Participating in an interaction session organised by the Public Affairs Centre on the recently-introduced Transferable Development Rights (TDR) scheme, BMP Commissioner K Jothiramalingam said the BMP was allowed demolition in all cases where residents had questioned their move -- numbering over 200 cases in recent times.

“In taking land acquisition by granting TDR, we try to exclude small buildings and only go in for commercial buildings and those that violate by-laws. In the next two weeks, there will be more demolitions taken up on violations,” he said.


In some areas, the BMP is trying to acquire land from defence organisations -- for instance, military land is being acquired near Banaswadi and along Airport Road for road-widening.

Hosur Road first

Responding to doubts of ‘will road-widening happen at all’, Mr Jothiramalingam said, “The first road to be widened in the near future is Hosur Road, around the Langford Town area.”

Then again, if land is required for some public purpose in any place and people don’t willingly give up land, acquisition still takes place.

BMP Additional Commissioner P K Srihari said that officials were working on plugging loopholes in the TDR scheme -- to prevent document duplication and use of fake TDR certificates.

Uncertain on laws

The State isn’t sure of itself on all issues related to the TDR scheme, it seems.

For instance, fire safety in case of unrestricted vertical extension of buildings by owners with enough floor-area-ratio benefits or, for that matter, use of TDR by religious buildings.

Principal Secretary (Urban Development) Shamim Banu M said that solutions are still being found for key questions.

“As for religious buildings, where the owners are willing to part with land, we need clarifications on whether the TDR can be used for commercial purposes or only for religious purposes. We are yet to work out how to go about dealing with owners who aren’t willing to part with land. As for fire safety, we have norms based on the national building code,” said Ms Banu. The aim was to do minimum damage to these buildings and, if possible, even re-align roads.

TDR is taxable in all respects, she added. The session saw some vociferous objections from the public on the scheme. “If the BMP is resorting to this because it doesn’t have money to pay compensation, what will we all do? Why are you assuming we have the money to construct additional storeys,” asked a participant.