BENGALURU: The tabling of the report by the House Committee on lake encroachment in Karnataka Assembly on Tuesday seems to have shocked the city’s realtors. With almost all major developers being named in the report as encroachers, the mood on Wednesday was a sombre one as companies were scrambling to deal with the crisis.
One of the companies named, Nandi Infrastructure Corridor Enterprise Limited (NICE), however, chose to speak out. It said the land in question was not encroached but had been handed over by the state government. “The land has been handed over on lease via government order and the possession was handed over to us in 2000. The land has been utilised for the construction of the peripheral road as per the alignment and approval of the Public Works Department (PWD),” a statement from NICE said.
Other builders named include Brigade group and Prestige developers. These companies didn’t comment.
A spokesperson for Sobha Developers denied that there was any encroachment by the company.
Speaking to Express, Suresh Hari, vice-president, CREDAI-Bengaluru said, “They should have called us for a joint inspection as these issues could have been resolved. In many cases, the properties have been purchased from other owners including the government itself.”