Bangaloreans unwilling to do their bit for road widening

Bangaloreans unwilling to do their bit for road widening
Deccan herald

Broad roads, tree-lined medians, wide footpaths and end of all chock-a-block traffic... all Bangaloreans dream of ‘road widening’, but when it comes to participating in the process, very few come forward to do it. This seems to be the bitter lesson that the Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BMP) has learnt a year after it introduced ‘Transfer of Development Rights’ scheme to acquire land for road widening.

In fact, the BMP has received only 19 positive responses to the TDR offer it made to 437 property owners. Under the TDR, citizens were required to relinquish their title to the land against a TDR certificate which will allow them certain benefits like additional Floor Area Ratio, but not monetary compensation. “We opted for TDR because it is impossible for the BMP to pay for acquisition of properties along the 45 roads identified for road widening,” explained a senior BMP official.

However, there are still several loose ends in the scheme that have made it ineffective, prime among them being the ambiguity regarding zoning of areas and lack of identification of buyers of TDRs. In a solution-seeking exercise, the BMP recently held a meeting with TDR-holders and developers, including Cambridge and Mantri Builders, to review these defects. Following the meeting, the selling price of TDRs has been revised depending on each zone. For ‘A’ zone, the selling price has been fixed at Rs 1,500 per square feet, for ‘B’ zone at Rs 1,000-1,050 and for ‘C’ zone at Rs 300-500. “Earlier, the buyers used to quote Rs 300 per square feet for ‘A’ zone TDR, which was not profitable for TDR holders. Therefore we are holding meetings with potential receivers of TDRs to increase awareness. Also, to meet the demand of developers, which ranges between 15,000 and 40,000 square feet worth of TDRs, we are counselling multiple owners to pool in their TDRs and sell them in bulk,” revealed a BMP official.

There are other constraining factors as well. The CDP plan, that is still awaiting implementation, offers an increased Floor Area Ratio (FAR) for owners, than the existing one. Therefore, owners are waiting for the FAR to increase before opting for TDR, explained a senior official of the Town Planning division of BMP. Also, the government’s plan to regulate illegal structures has also delayed the process, he added.

How TDR works?

In a plot area of 500 sq m at Road A, where FAR is 1.5

Buildable floor area: 500 x 1.5="750" sq m

Area surrendered: 100 sq m

Additional floor area in the form of TDR: 100 sq m

Plot area after surrender: 500-100="400" sq m

Buildable floor area in plot area of 400 sq m (after surrender):

If additional floor area is not utilised in the same plot: 750 sq m

If additional area is utilised in the same plot:750+100="850" sq m

ARE CITIZENS READY?

With Bangalore roads choking with vehicles, flyovers, metro and mono rails are in the offing to sort out the traffic mess. In addition, the BMP is also widening the roads. In April 2005, the BMP introduced Transfer of Development Rights (TDR) scheme which has made provision for the Palike to take land from private land owners for the road widening work.

If today Hyderabad has wide roads, it is due to the success of TDR and of course, the then chief minister Chandrababu Naidu. What about Bangaloreans? Are the citizens, who all the time bash the government for poor infrastructure facilities in the capital, ready to participate in the scheme?

Deccan Herald, under the series — More Space Please— is investigating how far the TDR has been successful in Bangalore.

Status of TDR

Name of road Served Accepted

Hosur-Lusker Rd 234 15

Palace Road 7 2

Ulsoor Road 37 —

Kensington Rd 10 —

Bellary Road 40 —

Victoria Road 32 —

Airport Road 72 2

Sankey Road 5 —

Total 437 19