The project was the only one of BDA’s housing project that was stuck in such a fashion. (File Photo)
BENGALURU: The Bangalore Development Authority has decided to give new life to its Kanminike Phase-I project, off Mysuru Road, which was abandoned by a contractor seven years ago resulting in huge losses. The latest BDA board meeting has given the green signal for it and tenders will be called immediately after the model code of conduct is lifted.
The Rs 167-crore project was the only one of its housing projects started across the city that got stuck in this fashion. A total of 608 1BHK, 384 2BHK and 320 3BHK flats were supposed to come up here.
A top BDA official said the contractor, Deepak Cables (India), was supposed to complete it by December 2014. He had only completed 7 blocks (40 flats per block) out of 19 blocks, all in the 1BHK category. “Even in these, only the basic structure of the flats was done with no interiors. We had paid him Rs 20 crore for the work done. A 1.5-year extension was given up to April 2016. But he declared insolvency by then and walked away from the project,” the official added.
An attempt was made to revive it a year later when Maverick Holdings responded to a fresh tender and came forward to complete it. “However, it was not accepted by the BDA. We had so many flats completed across the city and waiting to be sold. Since Kanminike Phase-2, 3 and 4 too were not getting enough buyers for readied flats, we decided to focus on selling them first,” the official added.
BDA has suffered losses running into crores on account of the stalled work.“By now, we should have made good revenue selling all of them and earned property tax too. With many of our flats in other areas sold and the demand still there for our flats, we have now decided to revive this,” the official added.
Ugadi discount helping Kanminike Ph-2 sale
To boost the sale of flats at Kanminike Phase-2 which were remaining stagnant due to a lack of fire department clearance and road connectivity, the BDA built a road from here via Judicial Layout to the main road.
“We also announced a 10 per cent discount during Ugadi for 2 BHK and 5 per cent for 3 BHK to spur sales and that has helped.
We have sold 200 2 BHK flats so far in Phase-2 of Kanminike and aim to sell 700 more. The 3-month discount period has translated into many showing interest. Out of 108 3 BHK flats, 40 have been sold,” he said. The discounted price of 3 BHK is Rs 38 lakh and that of 2 BHK is Rs 27 lakh and Rs 22.5 lakh, depending on the type of flat chosen. Another road leading to the main road is also in the pipeline.
