Housing Board to form layouts around Bangalore

Housing Board to form layouts around Bangalore

The Hindu

280-acre Suryanagar will have 2,000 sites

# Layouts planned near Kengeri, on Hosur Road, Doddballapur Road and Devanahalli Road
# Negotiations on for purchase of land
# Infrastructure in slums to be improved
# 55,000 slum dwellers to get possession certificates
# 2.27 lakh houses to built in a year under Ashraya scheme

BANGALORE: The Karnataka Housing Board, which has plans to launch 100 housing projects around Bangalore and other towns for lower income, middle income and higher income groups, will form a layout, Suryanagar, on 280 acres near Electronics City here.

The board will form 2,000 sites in the layout, the Housing Minister, Anjana Murthy, told presspersons here on Friday. Another layout is being formed at Bande Matha near Kengeri on 140 acres where nearly 1,000 sites will be allotted. Layouts will also be formed on Hosur Road, Doddballapur Road and Devanahalli Road.

Officials of the board have started negotiations to purchase land on the outskirts of Bangalore. The board is considering forming the layouts under a joint venture and will go in for a loan of Rs. 350 crores for buying land and constructing houses, he said.

Infrastructure in slums

The State Government has received a Rs. 36.25-crore grant from the Centre for developing infrastructure, such as building roads and drainage and providing drinking water and lighting in slums under the National Slum Development Project, the Minister said. The Government has received the first instalment of Rs. 4 crores for constructing houses under the Valmiki Ambedkar Awas Yojana. A proposal to provide infrastructure in slums in 21 towns under the Nirmala Jyoti programme at a cost of Rs. 13.50 crores will be placed before the Cabinet for approval.

Mr. Murthy said the Deputy Chief Minister, Siddaramaiah, has agreed to release Rs. 160 crores for the construction of houses for the poor under the Ashraya scheme. The Government will build 2,27,000 houses in one year under the scheme.

On the demand by MLAs that they be given a say in the allotment of sites by gram panchayats, the Minister said that he would discuss with the Chief Minister, N. Dharam Singh, whether a delegation from the State should meet the Union Minister for Panchayat Raj, Mani Shankar Aiyar, and request him to amend the Act to bring legislators into the picture.

The Minister said possession certificates will be issued to 55,000 slum dwellers all over the State before the end of the year. Slum dwellers will be given sites only after ascertaining that they have not already been allotted a site, he added.