It will be difficult to touch the 20,000-site mark, says BDA chief

It will be difficult to touch the 20,000-site mark, says BDA chief
The Hindu

Total number of sites in Arkavathy Layout put at 11,813

# On Friday, 7,003 allotment letters were issued
# Shortfall in allotments attributed to deletion of some land notified earlier

Bangalore: Bangalore Development Authority (BDA) Commissioner M.K. Shankaralinge Gowda, for the first time admitted that the BDA would most probably not be able to meet the full quota of 20,000 sites in Arkavathy Layout.

"We will find it difficult to distribute 20,000 sites in Arkavathy Layout," Mr. Gowda said at a press conference here on Friday.

This was Mr. Gowda's maiden press conference since he assumed office a month ago.

The BDA in the first phase of allotments in January handed over letters for 1,810 sites and on Friday made arrangements to issue allotment letters in respect of 7,003 sites. By the end of July, it plans to distribute another 3,000 sites bringing the total number to 11,813 sites.

Mr. Gowda said the shortfall in the allotments was because the BDA had to delete some of the lands that it had notified as per the High Court directions.

Of the 2,750 acres notified for the layout, nearly 748 acres were in dispute. There were 1,424 aggrieved landowners, the majority of whomwere revenue site owners, seeking exclusion of their land from the acquisition process. The BDA deleted 140 acres and 26 guntas of land that was under litigation. The commissioner said that if some of the land in another 1,000 acres, which was under dispute, was cleared then, the BDA might allot some more sites. "At the maximum we may be able to allot another 2,000 sites."

Review

Mr. Gowda said that for the first time the BDA conducted a review while finalising the allotment list because it received complaints from a few people that although they met the eligibility criteria their applications were not considered. Over 650 applicants applied for review and 228 applicants were found eligible and added to the allotment list, Mr. Gowda said.

Levy

Although allotment of sites in Arkavathy Layout would be disjointed, civic amenities would be provided to all who fall within the layout boundaries, said Mr. Gowda. "Those who are not allotted sites but fall within the layout will be asked to pay some betterment levy towards the provision of civic amenities," he said.

Mr. Gowda said there were 350 fraudulent applications. He said in several cases two applications had been made from the same registration number. In some cases fictitious addresses had been furnished and in others the domicile certificate was fake. In cases where the domicile certificate had been found to be fake, Mr. Gowda said the person's name would be deleted from the BDA list and that he would not be able to apply for BDA sites.

Next project

The formation of BDA's next layout depended on the Government approval of the draft Master Plan, he said. "We will announce the details of the layout within a week of the Government approving the draft Master Plan," Mr. Gowda said.

He said the 50,000-site residential layout would most probably not be in a single area but would be spread across in three locations.

"To decide on the areas we need to wait for the master plan to be approved," he said.

The draft Master Plan, which was developed by the BDA along with French Consultants SEC Creocean, would most probably be finalised by the first week of September.