DA backs out of Hi-tech City project

DA backs out of Hi-tech City project
BY R. JAYAPRAKASH
BENGALURU







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I City corridor proposal between Magadi Road and Mysore Road dropped, Land acquisition put on hold I
The Bangalore Development Authority (BDA), which was pulled up by the Karnataka High Court in 2005 for acquiring farmers’ land for a Hi-tech City around Iblur had again proposed to carve out a Hitech City Corridor between Magadi Road and Mysore Road.

Exactly a year after proposing the project, the authority has now backed out. Reason: Land acquisition problems.

According to BDA sources, the project doesn’t feature on the authorities’ to-do list. “A 1,000-acre dedicated hi-tech corridor has been proposed between Magadi Road and Mysore Road for clean industries in the Comprehensive Development Plan (CDP).

The corridor was supposed to be 17-29 km from the city centre and house IT and IT-enabled service industries. It was proposed to ease the pressure on Whitefield and Electronic City areas, where the IT industries are concentrated.

The corridor was proposed and integrated with the Master Plan 2015 prepared by BDA and was approved by then state cabinet led by H.D. Kumaraswamy. The government had asked the BDA to fasttrack this corridor. But things didn’t turn out the way we wanted. During Governor’s rule, all projects sanctioned by the govern ment was put on hold. Subsequently, the KIADB also filed a non-compliance report for acquiring the land and the project was dropped,” the officer said.

The proposal was to set up 10 integrated townships of 100 acres each with international standard amenities with plug-andplay concept for offices through a global tendering process.

The Master Plan had spelt a connectivity network too. The existing Bengaluru Mysore four-lane road, Mysore-Bengaluru doubletrack, monorail connectivi ty, Peripheral Ring Road, Satellite Town Ring Road, BMICP road and NHAI’s proposed Intermediate Ring Road was to ensure smooth movement of traffic. But all that seems history now.

This is not the first time that the BDA has cut a sorry figure. The authority in its over enthusiasm to ride on the IT wave had proposed a Hi-tech City project at Iblur between Sarjapur Road and Hosur Road.

Later, land losers challenged the land acquisition process as BDA had not involved KIADB to acquire the land.

The high court ruled in favour of land losers stating that BDA should develop layouts and not industrial layouts as it was KIADB’s prerogative. Notwithstanding the HC ruling, the authority again proposed the same project at a different location and also made provisions in the CDP raising hopes for the IT sector which was land starved.

But, the BDA’s second attempt too has come a cropper.