60000 acres, 5 townships govt’s plan for crumbling Bangalore

60000 acres, 5 townships govt’s plan for crumbling Bangalore
The Indian Express

32 private consortia, from Shanghai to Singapore, vying for Rs 30000-crore project; Govt will acquire land

Bangalore, December 13: It’s being pitched by the Karnataka government as the project that will put Bangalore in the league of a Shanghai or a Singapore — a cluster of five privately built satellite townships spread over a total of 60,691acres around Bangalore.

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Shanghai Urban Construction Corporation and Singapore’s Jurong Construction Company are among the 32 consortia vying for a place on the shortlist of bidders for the first of the townships due to be announced on December 15.

Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy, who is personally pitching for the estimated Rs 30,000-crore townships project, has sent out the message that the government will not allow any obstacle to stall the project or allow it to go the Bangalore Mysore Infrastructure Corridor way.

The first township is to be created on 9684 acres, including 6969 acres of private land, in Kumaraswamy’s Ramanagaram constituency.

While the Karnataka government will acquire land for the project, the private consortia picked to implement and own the properties will create the “economic-residential” township from scratch, providing every amenity from power to connectivity.

“The project has been inspired by efforts in countries like China, Singapore and the US. In terms of scale it is one of the biggest township projects in India,’’ says N Sriraman, additional commissioner at the Bangalore Metropolitan Region Development Authority, the nodal government agency for the project.

“The project is expected to offer the comforts and facilities available in Bangalore — minus the congestion, traffic, in a serene atmosphere, ‘’ says a planning official in the state urban development department.

Meanwhile, a local farmers’ protection group has alleged that the land acquisition for the first township at Bidadi, around 39 km from Bangalore, will kill the livelihood of around 25,000 members of the farming community in the region.

“What is the point of creating a mini America here at the cost of the local farmers who know no other way of life?’’ H T Lingappa, president of the Sri Ranganatha Raitha Hitarakshana Sangha, a forum of farmers, said this week while threatening to launch protests against land acquisition for the project. He alleges that land being acquired includes traditional belts of coconut, mango, sugarcane and vegetables. BMRDA officials say no land loser will be forced to relocate beyond the township. They will be paid compensation at market rates and integrated into the mainstream of economic activities in the township.

The BMRDA-Bidadi township project is also being called a replica of the township project proposed in the same region by the Nandi Infrastructure Corridor Enterprise under the Bangalore Mysore Infrastructure Corridor project that has been opposed by Kumaraswamy and his father former prime minister H D Deve Gowda.

“The BMRDA township project applies the same principles as the NICE project. When one project is already approved, what is the need for another township in the same region,’’ asks the managing director of NICE Ashok Kheny.