PWD pushes land for land; owners allege hard sell

PWD pushes land for land; owners allege hard sell
By R Krishnakumar,DH News Service,Bangalore:
With a Rs 1,000-crore budget, the six-lane highway is tipped to emerge as a major State project. The cost escalation, however, has led to a request for viability gap funding from the Centre...

Cornered by litigation over land acquisition, promoters of the proposed State Highway (Special) connecting the Outer Ring Road to the upcoming international airport in Devanahalli, are pushing hard the idea of land as compensation.
With the period for calling objections to the project getting over, the Public Works Department has proposed sites for property owners displaced by the 21.2-km highway.
PWD Secretary Sudhir Krishna said the Department was negotiating with Government agencies, including the Bangalore Development Authority, to look into possibilities of offering alternative sites to property owners who are affected by the project.
“We are in talks with the BDA. If the BDA can allocate alternative sites, the highway can take off without we losing much time,” Krishna said.
The PWD has already finalised the highway route alignment, that came under the scanner after property owners alleged that the Bangalore Metropolitan Region Development Authority — the original nodal agency of the project — was “protecting” land owned by men with influence on the Government.
Conditional objection
Owners of properties covered under the alignment, however, have raised objection to the land-for-land bargain.
According to them, officials of the Karnataka Road Development Corporation Limited had “encouraged” petitioners to mention in their objections that they were ready to part with land if provided an alternative site or higher monetary compensation. The KRDCL received more than 200 objections in connection with the highway, sources said.
“The KRDCL has no authority to promise alternative sites... they were just trying to minimise the number of serious objections so that the highway can take off soon,” claimed Dwarkanath, an affected property owner. Krishna countered the contention and pointed out that there was “nothing illegal” in people seeking alternative sites or higher compensation to part with their land.
Some of the property owners also questioned the feasibility of BDA sites as an alternative, considering that the BDA is grappling with land issues for its own projects.

FUNDING FORMULA

With a Rs 1,000-crore budget, the six-lane highway is tipped to emerge as a major State project. The cost escalation, however, has led to a request for viability gap funding from the Centre. With the Centre yet to respond positively, the State might pursue options with the bidders. “The pre-qualification of bidders is complete. If they can devise a technology plan that helps downsizing the budget, the highway can take off soon,” Krishna said.
Sources said the PWD was still answering certain “queries” raised by the Union Ministry of Finance on the highway. The PWD has put a one-year deadline to throw the highway open to traffic. However, with the project still on paper, the highway is certain to miss March 30, 2008, the opening date of the Bangalore International Airport in Devanahalli.