Masterplan remains on paper

Masterplan remains on paper
TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Bangalore: Four chief ministers and a period of governor’s rule haven’t been enough to ease this deadlock.
The masterplan of the Bangalore International Airport Area Planning Authority (BIAAPA) has been in the waiting for about four years. It was learned that
the plan prepared by the Bangalore Metropolitan Region Development Authority (BMRDA) has been kept on hold because some “influential’’ developers were trying to exercise control over the plan.
According to officials involved in developing the masterplan — that got provisional approval in 2004 — the mandatory requirement to incorporate objections to the plan, from the public, have also been ignored. “Some high-profile developers with vested interests have been trying to ensure there’s no transparency in the manner in which the masterplan is cleared. This had led to a deadlock and successive governments have also not done their bit to clear it,’’ an official said.
A leading developer in the city underlines the irony of having massive real estate development in areas surrounding Bengaluru International Airport (BIA) in Devanahalli, when there’s not even a comprehensive masterplan that can chart out development in the region. “We talk about the rise in real estate activity in the BIAAPA region, even when stalemate over the masterplan is on for four years. The development is still based on an interim masterplan, that typically doesn’t have a life beyond two years,’’ he said.
It’ll be ready before Dec 18: govt
The finalized BIAAPA masterplan will be ready before December 18, the government told the high court on Thursday. Advocate-general Udaya Holla, who appeared before Justice Ram Mohan Reddy, gave this assurance to the court.
Ramakrishna and others had challenged the rejection of their applications seeking a layout plan approval for their lands. Based on the September 2004 provisional masterplan in which their lands were shown as agricultural ones, the applications were rejected. The BIAAPA area includes Devanahalli, parts of DB Pura and Yelahanka. “The applications were rejected in 2006 on the basis of the provisional masterplan. This is impermissible in law. Even though the government had promised a finalized masterplan at the last hearing, it is yet to materialize,’’ Srinivasa Rao, counsel for the petitioners, told the court.