Those who were eagerly waiting to apply for a site at Nadaprabhu Kempegowda Layout will have to wait a little longer as the Bangalore Development Authority has decided to postpone the development of the layout till it acquires at least 2,500 acres of land.
Bangalore Development Authority (BDA) Commissioner T Sham Bhatt said, “We had invited tenders to form the layout but the tenders were quashed as it would have been difficult to plan and form roads as originally planned. Therefore, we have decided to form the layout only after acquiring at least 2,500 acres of land. We have acquired around 1,700 acres till now,” he said.
According to Sham Bhatt, the BDA has already initiated the process to acquire land and they will do so in a couple of months.
Kempegowda Layout is one of the five proposed to be developed by the BDA around the city in 2007. Around 60,000 sites were supposed to be developed in the layout.
Subsequently, the BDA issued notifications to acquire lands in and around 12, villages of Kengeri Hobli in Bangalore South taluk.
The BDA had issued the final notification to acquire 4,043 acres and 27 guntas of land for the layout on February 18, 2010.
As the landowners opposed the acquisition, the BDA offered 40 per cent of the developed land as compensation.
The BDA also offered compensation ranging from Rs 80 lakh to Rs 1 crore per acre for those who wanted monetary relief.
Yet till January the BDA managed to acquire 1,469 acres of the land.
Various landowners who own around 1,050 acres of land have filed writ petitions in the Karnataka High Court challenging the acquisition.
Meanwhile, the State government has decided to abandon its plans to develop the remaining four layouts due to land acquisition problems.