Tenders to carry out prelim civil works in Dr Shivaram Karanth Layout to be out shortly

BENGALURU: Works pertaining to the formation of the Dr Shivaram Karanth Layout are going on rapidly with the first set of tenders, one for carrying out civil works and another to appoint an agency to help obtain environmental clearance, will be called shortly.

This proposal would be placed in front of the BDA Board meeting on Friday for its consent, said senior officials.

The Layout will be the second biggest of BDA and 28,000 sites will be readied here on 3,546 acres and 12 guntas. The Layout will extend across 17 villages between Doddaballapur and Hesaraghatta.

An official told TNIE, “We have already issued compensation awards for acceptance by owners of 1,300 acres and 673 acres of them have been acquired. Within just two months, so much acquisition has been carried out which has never happened before in BDA. The tendering process is set to get underway shortly but this will be for the entire layout not just for the land we are in the process of acquiring presently. The compensation land to be handed over to land losers will alone be left out of it,” he said.

Asked about the initial works proposed, the official said that Site grading (leveling of land), Site numbering, and laying of drainages on either side will be among the works covered under the tenders.

Another official said the process of procuring an Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) report from the Karnataka State Pollution Control Board would be taken up simultaneously.

“Setting up of an agency and getting the necessary clearance could take two months,” he said.

Another official said there was an urgent need on the part of the government to initiate some process to resolve the numerous litigations faced by the BDA.

“Our land audit report by E I Technologies has revealed that 2,373 acres of land were available for acquisition by the authority,” he said.

There are nearly 7,000 cases pending against BDA in various courts of which nearly 3,400 of them are in the High Court alone, he added.

“If some mediation or solution can be found to the issue, we would be able to acquire another 5,000 acres of land. Even if BDA gets a minimum of Rs 20 crore per acre by selling them, we would be able to earn Rs One lakh crore. Not only can be make ourselves into a profit making organisation, we would also be able to help the State government financially,” the official said.