Arkavathi short of thousands of sites

Arkavathi short of thousands of sites
Deccan Herald

“I cannot say I can give 20,000 sites – not in Arkavathi,” Bangalore Development Authority Commissioner M K Shankarlinge Gowda said on Friday, confirming that the prestigious Arkavathi Layout, in its final shape, will be short by more than a few thousand sites than the originally stated 20,000.

“I cannot say I can give 20,000 sites — not in Arkavathi,” Bangalore Development Authority Commissioner M K Shankarlinge Gowda said on Friday, confirming that the prestigious Arkavathi Layout, in its final shape, will be short by more than a few thousand sites than the originally stated 20,000.

As of Friday, the BDA had made 9,813 allotments (including 1,810 made in January and 7,003 made in the ongoing second phase of allotments). Another 700 are due to be allotted over this week as part of the second phase. In the third phase slated for July, the BDA will allot 3,000 sites.

According to the BDA commissioner, another 2,000 sites may be allotted if at least 200 acres of the land under dispute can be cleared. As much as 1,000 acres in the notified area are reportedly disputed.

Of the allotments made thus far 222 are in the “I” category: honourary allotments made in recognition of an allottee’s achievements (sportspersons, artists, etc).

Fake certificates

Meanwhile, the commissioner noted that the BDA would come down heavily on applicants who have produced fake domicile certificates. Mr Gowda said, “We have contacted the authorities for verification. These applicants will be blacklisted, they will be removed from our present list and they will lose their priority in terms of number of attempts made.”

Among the faulty applications are those with fake addresses. The BDA has come across about 350 such cases in all.

Many are also duplicates; some have both husband and wife applying separately. Mr Gowda said that in such cases the BDA was ruling in favour of the fairer sex (if the applicant couple is eligible for site allotment).

The BDA will be levying betterment charges on Arkavathi Layout residents who are not BDA allottees but have earned right of stay in the layout because they resided there as part of a different layout or owned individual houses. This is part of the process of making the layout a contiguous entity, he noted.

The details of the Arkavathi site allotments made thus far may be accessed on the BDA website: www.bdabangalore.org

‘Mega layout’ hinges on CDP

Information on the 50,000-site “mega layout” can be expected in early September, BDA Commissioner M K Shankarlinge Gowda said. The proposed layout is linked to the finalisation of the Comprehensive Development Plan (CDP). The CDP master plan is due to be finalised in August or early September and the details of the mega layout will be made known a week after that, he said. The 50,000 sites will be spread over two or three different locations, he said.

The mega layout was announced by the Dharam Singh government as the BDA’s next big layout after Arkavathi, reports DHNS from Bangalore.