The Bangalore Development Authority (BDA) on Monday said it will soon complete the pending works at its layouts and hand over them to the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP).
The plan is to ready Anjanapura, Visvesvaraya and Banashankari 6 Stage (1, 2 blocks) layouts after completing pending civic works worth over Rs 400 crore.
Following back-to-back protests by residents over the delay in completion of infrastructure work, BDA chairperson SR Vishwanath along with Bangalore South MLA M Krishnappa on Monday inspected the layouts.
“The BDA has agreed to release pending funds for competition of the work including road, supply of Cauvery water and sewerage network. Soon, the layouts will be handed over to the BBMP as per the earlier agreement,” Krishnappa said.
Asked for a deadline for completing the works, Krishnappa said: “No timeline has been set, but work will happen without any hindrance now.”
Stating that chief minister Basavaraj Bommai has directed the BDA to complete all the pending civic infrastructure works at old layouts developed by the BDA, Vishwanath said: “I agree that for various reasons, there has been a considerable delay in providing civic infrastructure at Anjanapura, Banashankari and Visvesvaraya layouts. But we (BDA) will not delay any further in providing the required infrastructure including potable water, underground drainage, electricity, connecting roads network and other facilities.”
According to Krishnappa, in Anjanapura and Banashankari 6 Stage alone, there are over 4,000 vacant sites and properties have come up on several thousand sites. “All of these will be handed over to BBMP as soon as the infrastructure work is completed,” he said.
Stating that there is no dearth of funds at BDA, Vishwanath said: “In the last one year, BDA has been successful in evicting encroachments and recovering the encroached lands under due legal process. This has resulted in enough income to the BDA. So far, 9,000 such sites belonging to the BDA have been identified and we have been selling them by way of auction in a phased manner. All of these have resulted in the collection of Rs 3,000 crore revenue.”
Pointing at the Bangalore Water Supply and Sewerage Board (BWSSB) project of providing Cauvery water to extended stages of the Banashankari Layout, Vishwanath said: “The project requires about Rs 54 crore. Of that, BDA has already paid Rs 27.5 crore to BWSSB for completing work and soon it would begin the supply of water to the layout. The remaining amount will be paid once the BWSSB completes the pending works.”