South-west bound for industries, but...

South-west bound for industries, but...
The Times of India

Bangalore: Industries or sewage overflow? This is the option before India’s bursting-at-the-seams IT city.

This question has cropped up because the industries department’s ambitious plan to move IT and other industries to Bangalore’s southwest has hit a roadblock: A newly notified Bangalore structural plan has frozen development in southwest of the city, where the 250-acre Harohalli Industrial Estate was to come up.

There is desperate demand for this land due to dire shortage of developed industrial area in and around the IT city. Scores of applications have poured in for the planned area and more, though allocations haven’t been made as yet.

“Demand for land there is so high that we have even drawn up plans for immediate expansion — a 500-acre second phase of the Harohalli Industrial Estate,’’ Karnataka Industrial Areas Development Board (KIADB) officials said.

But the hitch: Bangalore southwest — the stretch from Kanakapura Road to Mysore Road — is the sewage draining area for the city. The Vrushabhavathi river, which has become the city’s drain, empties out in this area.

The Bangalore Metropolitan Regional Development Authority (BMRDA), that drew up the structural plan, has made it clear that industrial growth in the south-west would be detrimental to the city. “Blocking that region with industries would be disastrous. Where will the sewage empty out?’’ sources asked.

The industries department picked Harohalli as the region for further development for two reasons: It can be a counter-magnet to the highly congested Bangalore south-east — Whitefield to Electronic City stretch; and it is part of industries, finance and infrastructure minister P G R Sindhia’s assembly constituency Kanakapura.

With the structural plan coming in the way now, KIADB officials are at their wits’ end to provide developed land in keeping with the demand. Sources said the government would have to consider denotifying Kanakapura hobli, similar to the relaxation done for IT industries in Sarjapur hobli.
Sindhia said: “Kanakapura is a no-industry taluk, one of the most backward in the state. KIADB has started work on the industrial estate. I have asked the urban development department to reconsider the notification in public interest.’’

TWICE JINXED
This is the second time in two years that KIADB’s plans to expand industrial area around Bangalore has been hit: Plans for a 400-600 acre IT hub in Bommansandra-Jigani area, another 250-acre off Electronic City Phase III and Electronic City Phase IV in Anekal taluk had to be abandoned, as they come under the BDA-notified Green Belt.