Land developers taking buyers for a ride

Land developers taking buyers for a ride

K.V. Subramanya

Misleading ads appear about residential layouts around BIA

Most of them are providing factually incorrect information about the location of layouts

Several ads have appeared in newspapers about their new residential layouts

CHICKBALLAPUR: Several land developers, who have come out with residential layouts near the Bengaluru International Airport (BIA), are apparently taking the prospective buyers for a ride by providing factually incorrect information about the location of the layouts.

In the past few weeks, over two dozen land developers have issued advertisements in various newspapers about their new residential layouts around the BIA, and all these layouts are situated either in Chickballapur or Bangalore Rural districts.

A glance at these advertisements reveals that most of the land developers have given false or misleading information about their layouts and the topography of the area.

At least 10 advertisements by different land developers that have appeared in the past few days state that the layouts were situated close to the proposed sports village near the BIA. Although the State Government has proposed to establish a sports village in Chickballapur district, bordering the BIA, no land has been identified for the project.

According to Subodh Yadhav, who was till recently Deputy Commissioner of Chickballapur district, a few months ago, Minister for Sports and Youth Services Goolihatti D. Shekar and the then Commissioner for Sports and Youth Services Amar Kumar Pandey inspected four sites on the outskirts of Chickballapur for the proposed sports village. However, so far no land has been identified for the sports village. Thus, saying that a layout is situated near the proposed sports village would be factually wrong, Mr. Yadhav told The Hindu.

Similarly, an advertisement by a land developer states that their layout was situated near the BIA and the layout was visible from the “Chickballapur DC office.”

Another advertisement mentions that the layout was situated in Chickballapur corporation limits and was only a “15-minute drive from the BIA.” But, Chickballapur is around 30 km from the BIA, and Beedaganahalli, the last Chickballapur district village towards BIA, itself is around 20 km from the airport.

There are also many such misleading advertisements about residential layouts that are coming up in Doddaballapur taluk of Bangalore Rural district. For instance, a glossy advertisement about a proposed residential layout near Rajanukunte in Doddaballapur taluk states the layout is a just 15 km from the BIA. “From Rajanukunte, one has to travel via Yelahanka to reach the BIA and the distance is 30 km. It would be at least 20 km if one takes the ‘kachha’ unmotorable road that passes through villages,” said Nataraj, a progressive farmer from Doddaballapur.

There have been even more shocking advertisements. One such advertisement states that the proposed layout was coming up on the National Highway-7 near the Peragodu Dam and was only a few minutes drive from the BIA.

However, the Peregodu Dam is situated off the highway in Bapegalli taluk of Chickballapur district and it is around 75 km from the BIA.