Eleven out of 17,000 plot owners at Bangalore Development Authority’s (BDA) Nadaprabhu Kempegowda Layout have come forward to build their homes out of sheer desperation, even though the layout lacks infrastructure including roads, electricity, drinking water and drains.
Two retired officials informed the assembly’s petition committee member and MLA S Suresh Kumar on Wednesday that they are among the 11 allottees who applied for a building plan sanction as the layout hasn’t seen much progress in the last six years.
Senior BDA officials shared with Kumar a list of plot owners who applied for building plan approval. The MLA visited the layout on Wednesday to assess progress of the work after the petition committee asked him to inspect the site and submit a report.
There are about 17,000 plot owners in the layout, being developed off Mysuru and Magadi roads. While 10,000 of them are original allottees, the rest are landowners who got plots in return for parting with their land. Some are Arkavathy Layout allottees who have been moved to NPKL.
The NPKL work has stopped since three years, though BDA first allotted sites in 2016, promising to provide infrastructure in two years. BDA sold these plots at a hefty price to allottees, citing increase in land costs.
A team of BDA engineers led by engineer-member HR Shantharajanna briefed Kumar about the hurdles that have blocked the layout’s progress. NPKL Open Forum members, including spokesperson AS Suryakiran and secretary Ashok Mayigowda, informed the petition committee and BDA that some people have come forward to build homes out of helplessness as they are paying rent and facing inflated rate of interest on their loans. Banks have converted their home loans into commercial ones after they failed to build houses in two years.
Some farmers complained that BDA hasn’t released compensatory sites to them though it notified and took over their lands more than a decade ago. A farmer said he has blocked access to I sector in Block 2 in protest. Suryakiran said while BDA planned the layout covering 4,040 acres, it formed it only on 2,100 acres.
