Restrictions should go to facilitate road widening, says Jairaj

Restrictions should go to facilitate road widening, says Jairaj

The Hindu

BMP has planned the widening of 85 roads using Transfer of Development Rights BMP has planned the widening of 85 roads. In the first phase, 12 roads will be widened

Bangalore: Restrictions on selling Development Rights Certificates (DRCs) should be relaxed to facilitate land transfer for widening of roads, K. Jairaj, Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BMP) Commissioner said on Friday.

As of now, the Karnataka Town and Country Planning Act stated that owners who have DRCs (translates to Floor Area Ratio) in Zone B and C would not be able to sell it to buyers in Zone A.

Owners with DRCs in Zone C have to sell it only in that zone while DRC owners of Zone A would be able to sell it in all three zones.

The BMP has planned the widening of 85 roads using Transfer of Development Rights (TDR).

In the first phase, 12 roads, including Nrupatunga Road, Avenue Road, Airport Road and Seshadri Road, have been identified for widening.

Mr. Jairaj said that the Act stated that DRCs would be given to roads with a width of more than 12 metres, but land transfer could be easier if the limit was reduced to 9 metres. Old buildings could be exempted from having mandatory parking facilities, he said. Earlier, in a presentation, Joint Commissioner (Works) Harsh Gupta said that road alignment (the route which the road would take) had been identified for nine out of the twelve roads.

Mr. Gupta said that the road alignment had been identified in such a way that mostly government lands were acquired. A total of 1,76,256 sq metres of land was required for widening the 12 roads, he said. Twenty-five per cent of the land to be acquired was private land while 24 per cent was those belonging to the Defence forces, he said.

Anup Shah, legal expert, said that only 20 property owners had voluntarily given up their land for road-widening projects undertaken by the BMP in the last 18 months. In response to questions raised by the audience, Mr. Shah said that DRCs were treated as intangible assets and so registration would not be required, but tax would be levied on the benefit acquired from selling the DRCs. He said that the DRCs could be used in all zones and was not restricted to BMP or Bangalore Development Authority limits.

On compensation for tenants, Mr. Shah said that provisions of the Act did not cover benefits for tenants. This seminar on Transfer of Development Rights was jointly organised by the Federation of Karnataka Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FKCCI) with Karnataka Ownership Apartments Promoters' Association (KOAPA).