BDA planning a Sankranti gift

BDA planning a Sankranti gift

The Hindu

The authority may unveil its largest layout: 50,000 sites on 5,000 acres of land

# About 70 per cent of the land will be used for forming 20 ft by 30 ft sites
# The layout will have water treatment plants

BANGALORE: Residents of Bangalore can expect a gift from the Bangalore Development Authority (BDA) next Sankranti: the announcement of a residential layout with 50,000 sites.

BDA Commissioner M.N. Vidyashankar said planning for the 50,000 sites has been completed. "We have identified four places in the city where we can acquire 5,000 acres of land. We are working out the details and will announce the layout next year," he added.

Allotment of the 20,000 sites in Arkavathy Layout was also to have been a Sankranti gift for citizens. However, work on the layout was held up for several months because of court cases. The 50,000-site layout, the largest that the BDA has planned, is envisioned as a mega city that will have its own railway station, helipad, colleges and hospitals. A large chunk of the layout, around 70 per cent of the land, will consist of 20 ft by 30 ft sites. The smallest category of sites will be those in the dimension of 60 ft by 40 ft.

Mr. Vidyashankar said the aim of the BDA is to decongest the central business district of the city, and the new layout will act as a "counter-magnet". To meet the residents' requirement of water, the layout will have a rainwater harvesting structure and water treatment plants. "We plan to treat sewage and use it within the layout for watering parks. We have already set up treatment plants in Lalbagh and Cubbon Park," Mr. Vidyashankar said.

Arkavathy Layout

Work on six of the 22 packages of Arkavathy Layout has commenced, and civil works have started on two of them.

The project cost, which was initially estimated at Rs. 933.47 crores, is expected to go up by over 15 per cent.

Mr. Vidyashankar said the BDA has not made a fresh estimate. "We will come to know of the revised project cost only when we take up works in the area. It is difficult to estimate it now," he added.