BMRDA layouts remain a mirage

Many projects still unexecuted, but Authority clueless.

People looking to buy a site in a BMRDA-approved layout on the city’s outskirts should be extra cautious. For, many layout projects approved by the BMRDA have remained unexecuted.

The agency is now finding it difficult to track down developers who sold the sites but have failed to develop layouts. The BMRDA is in a fix as to how to develop these layouts since the 2005 circular, based on which a large number of layouts were approved, is silent on this.

Upa Lokayukta Justice Subhash B Adi had taken up a suo motu complaint against BMRDA based on an anonymous letter about a layout in Attibele which remains barren land since 2005. The Urban Development Department has been directed to provide details about approved layouts and the present status.

As per the details provided by the BMRDA, a total of 1,364 layouts have been approved in BMRDA, Anekal, BIAAPA, Hoskote, Kanakapura, Magadi, Nelamangala and RCUDA. The BMRDA stated that out of this, 15 layouts were never developed even five years after approval. Development was not completed in 317 layouts even after five years of approval, while the same number of layouts have been fully developed. And, BMRDA claims that in 715 layouts, development is ‘in progress’.Interestingly, before the 2005 circular, only 189 layouts were approved by BMRDA, while after the circular was issued, a whopping 1,177 layouts were given the nod. In Anekal alone, 523 layouts have been approved.

“The 2005 circular is instrumental for the sudden increase in the approval of layouts. There is no clarity in the circular about the next course of action when a builder fails to develop the layout. Moreover, the circular stipulates that after approval, the developer can sell 60 per cent of the sites. In some cases, builders were allowed to sell all the sites, but layouts still remain undeveloped,” Justice Adi said. As per the circular, a builder who has got approval for a BMRDA layout, cannot sell more than 60 per cent of the total sites and should develop the entire layout within five years. The rule also states that if the builder fails to develop the layout, BMRDA should sell the remaining 40 per cent sites through auction and develop the entire layout. The legal lacuna is how the BMRDA can reclaim rights over the land after transferring it to the developer.

The Upa Lokayukta has directed the officials concerned to prepare an action plan to take action against the developers and also on amending the 2005 circular.

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