Army fighting 'encroachment'

Army fighting 'encroachment'
New Indian Express

The real estate boom has the army worried. To pre-empt encroachment on its land, it has decided to quickly build offices and quarters for its personnel.

The haste to carry out constructions comes at a time when land is shrinking in the city, and real estate prices are skyrocketing. The army is constructing sub-area offices at the Manekshaw Parade Grounds and the Parachute Regiment is coming up with 400 houses for its personnel near the Doordarshan Kendra in JC Nagar.

Work is progressing at a brisk pace at both places and for the first few days, armed guards had been deployed at the JC Nagar construction site.

Sources said that several more army units in the city are taking up construction as they wish to protect their land, and in any case, they need office space and housing quarters. “They were waiting for permission and funds and now that they have got both, construction has been initiated,” a source said.

A few years ago, the Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BMP) had asked the Army for some land at the Manekshaw Parade Grounds to construct an underground car park so that traffic congestion on MG Road could be eased. The BMP had proposed that around 700 cars could be parked on 30 per cent of the ground and in case the ground was not available, basement parking could be considered. The revenue from the parking would go to the army.

But the army shot down the proposal on the grounds that it was taking up construction on the same land.

As for the vacant land adjoining the Doordarshan office, it had become a playground. In the past, some politicians had even spoken about building a stadium there. But, the army was not willing to part with it.

The army has reason to be worried as it is finding it difficult to get back its land in Ulsoor that has been encroached upon a few years back. During construction of quarters in Ulsoor, labourers erected huts close to the site and continued to stay there even after the construction was completed.

Efforts to remove these by defence personnel were met with stiff resistance from slum dwellers with the support of local leaders. To add to the army’s problems, the government issued a notification, declaring the encroached area of 2.02 acres of defence land as a ‘slum’. Now the government is planning to shift the slum dwellers.

That apart, the army has been making efforts to get suitable compensation for the land on which Chinnaswamy Stadium and the State Police Headquarters were constructed. The army claims they were defence lands.

The army has actively been working with the State administration and helping it along. It has given its land for the Bangalore Metrorail project, the ring road and also for widening of roads at several places.