BMTC, KSRTC in trouble for illegal construction

BMTC, KSRTC in trouble for illegal construction
R Jayaprakash and Ashwini Y S | TNN

Bangalore: It is the season of unauthorized constructions, notices and penalties. There are over Rs 4.5 lakh unauthorized constructions in Bangalore, and now there are four more — at least according to the BBMP. It has pinned down BMTC and KSRTC for violation of the rule book.
Much to their embarrassment, the BBMP has slapped notices on two Traffic Transit Management Centres (TTMC) being constructed — at Jayanagar IV Block and Yeshwantpur — and their flagship projects — Shanthinagar Bus Stand and Mysore Road Satellite Bus Station.
The BBMP notice outside the construction sites reads: ‘This building doesn’t have BBMP’s plan approval, so construction activity has been stalled by order’. Nevertheless, construction is going on in full swing.
It is two months since the notices have been slapped on the four transport hubs, as the authorities had not taken building plan sanction.
BBMP commissioner S Subramanya told The Times of India that the civic body cannot be partial when it came to violators.
“BMTC and KSRTC have put up two huge buildings on at Shanthinagar and another at Mysore Road. They have not consulted us for any sanction and we had no choice but to slap notices. They come under high value assessment, the corporations earn revenue out of it and as such they are required to pay property tax like any other corporation in the state,’’ he said.
For all buildings — be they of state government or PSUs — BBMP sanction is a must. “We have halted the construction and we’ll allow them to continue once they take approval from us,’’ he explained.
BMTC sources said that apart from the notices posted at the project site, no written notice had been furnished by the BBMP so far.
As per the officials, the projects have been sanctioned by the Central Sanctioning and Monitoring Committee (CSMC) constituted for sanctioning JNNURM projects. Therefore, there’s no need for separate sanction by the state government.
BMTC has written to the urban development department secretary for issuance of government order waiving off the amount of ground rent payable by BMTC apart from obtaining licence and permission from BBMP.
KSRTC officials said they had not received any notices regarding building plan sanction by the BBMP for the bus station on Mysore road.
TTMC FACTOIDS
Approved cost for Jayanagar TTMC being constructed in an area of 37 guntas is Rs 8.90 crore
Shanthinagar TTMC constructed at Rs 85 crore has been paying property tax of Rs 26 lakh
Status of Jayanagar TTMC: BMTC hopes to finish the Jayanagar TTMC by January 2009, but controversies have a habit of following the project and it could be delayed. First, it was the Karnataka Land Army Corporation (KLAC) which delayed the process by seven months, which BMTC officials term “teething problems”. As a result, the cost has escalated by Rs 2 crore. Now, the BBMP has slapped a notice on the project. Officials state that there’s no need for worry and the project will meet the deadline.