BENGALURU: An ambitious plan by former Chief Minister Siddaramaiah to build one lakh houses for the urban poor of Bengaluru has hit several hurdles including a shortage of land for the buildings to come up.
While 1500 acres are needed for the projects to come up, the office of the Bengaluru Urban Deputy Commissioner has managed to identify only around 1014 acres and 10 guntas so far. However, even this land is not without its share of problems, officials say.
At many places, the surveyors have found that the land is not feasible for construction due to the quality of the land. "Some of the lands are abandoned quarries, some have a rocky bottom which is not safe for constructing high rise buildings while others are under litigation," said an official from the Rajiv Gandhi Rural Housing Corporation, the agency entrusted with the project.
Currently, around 431 acres and 11 guntas were identified in November last year and another 582 acres and 39 guntas in March this year. Some of the places include Kada Agrahara, Horamavu, Kodigehalli, Devagere, Punagamaaranahalli, Kukkanahalli, Kittanahalli, Mallasandra, Agrahara Palya, Gaanigaaranahalli, Thotagere, Kudaragere, Nellukunte, Naadenaalli, Gollahalli, Bidaraguppe and other places, all in Bengaluru Urban District limits.
"This does not mean we have 1014 acres. It is government land, but the surface is not plain. At the outset, we might not know if it has legal hurdles, even if we start construction, private individuals or organisation claiming might move to court and bring a stay," the official said. Apart from this, surveyors also found that some of the land is in a buffer zone.
As per National Green Tribunal directives, no construction activities can take place in the buffer zone of lake bed area which was increased from 30 meters to 75 meters. "The buffer zone land belongs to State government, but we cannot construct. Survey of land (1014 acres 10 guntas) is going on which will take atleast one month.
We have found many hurdles in the beginning, we end up losing land like this," the official said. According to senior Congress leaders, there was no question of scrapping the project entirely as the party represented most of the assembly constituencies in the city. leaders also ruled out reducing the number of houses from 1 lakh to a more managable target.
On Wednesday, there was a meeting convened by the minister and Chief Secretary regarding the housing scheme. Confirming the same, Housing Minister U T Khader said that initially there were plans to construct ground plus three floor houses with available land. But now that there is space constraint, there is a need to increase the number of floors.
"We are planning to construct ground plus 14 floors. We have divided land available in Bengaluru as A, B and C categories. A category being the most prime land and C the least prime land. Prime land is very expensive too. Instead of constructing a few houses in the same space, if we increase it to 14 floors, more number of beneficiaries will get houses in the prime location," he said.
He also defended the decision by stating that when private builders are constructing for more than 10 to 20 floors, why cannot government do it. However, even this decision is not without its problems. There is now the dilemma of who will pay the monthly maintenance fee for these high-rise buildings.
The new series of State owned high-rised buildings is expected to add more miseries to Bengaluru's water woes. These houses will have a specific uniform design. Built in 322 square feet, each house will have a room with a balcony and an inbuilt ward-robe, living room, kitchen with utility, bathroom with toilet.
It will be furnished and fit with fan and lights. When asked about monthly maintenance, Khader said the government will take up monthly maintenance including lift maintenance. Speaking to The New Indian Express, V Anbukumar, Managing Director, RGRHCL said a tender was floated much before State assembly election to construct houses for ground plus three floors.
"Since election code of conduct enforced, it was not taken forward. Now it is in final stages. As per the instruction from higher authorities, construction work will be taken up,'' he said.