BENGALURU: A pet project of former Chief Minister Siddaramaiah which stated one lakh houses to be built for the economically weaker section of the society is showing signs of gradually being taken up. With land availability being the biggest challenge in Bengaluru, the fate of the project was hanging in the balance but is expected to be taken up in the next two months, in stages.
Since the project was announced two years ago, two chief ministers — BS Yeddyurappa and HD Kumaraswamy — and three housing ministers — M Krishnappa, UT Khader and MTB Nagaraj — have occupied their respective posts, but the project still failed to come to fruition.
In September 2017, the state cabinet approved a proposal for building one lakh houses for the weaker sections in the city on government lands, which were cleared of encroachments in recent years. Subsequently, in 2018, the state government called for tenders to construct one lakh houses in a ground-plus-three-storey format, for which they needed more than 1,500 acres of land. This posed a problem for the housing authorities due to land shortage in the city.
As getting 1,500 acres was a difficult task, after the new government came to power they changed the plan to ground-plus-14-storey format so that lesser area could be utilised, making them cancel the older tender and call for a fresh one.
This time, they have called a tender to construct over 46,000 houses at 54 locations including Kada Agrhara, Horamaavu, Kodigehalli, Devagere etc, all of which are in Bengaluru Urban District limits.
According to a senior official from the department of housing, the state government has approved 1,014 acres of land. “Out of the 1,014 acres approved, only 331 acres are free from encroachments. The bigger challenge is that a large amount of this land is under dispute. Though it is government land, some private people encroached and have even approached the court. We are facing legal hurdles in these places,’’ the official added.
The official said that in the dispute-free land, over 46,000 houses will come up. These will include both one BHK as well as two BHK houses, the cost which is estimated to be between Rs 10.5 lakh and Rs 16 lakh, respectively. The entire project is worth around Rs 4,475 crore.
The department officials, who have decided to go ahead with the project in the dispute-free land, say the work is likely to begin in the next two months, and is expected to be completed within 27 months from the date of commencement.
