BENGALURU: The ambitious Peripheral Ring Road (PRR) project around Bengaluru, which got cabinet approval a couple of days ago following a Supreme Court directive, continues to face hurdles with farmers unwilling to part with their land hoping for a better deal.
Tension prevailed at the Bengaluru Development Authority (BDA) premises on Friday as hundreds of farmers laid siege to the office. The meeting had been fixed, but when the chairman and commissioner did not turn up in time, the farmers started staging a protest and even attempted to block the road.
The police swung into action and eventually, BDA chairman and Yelahanka BJP MLA S R Vishwanath and commissioner Rajesh Gowda turned up and invited the farmers for the meeting. “We are not ready to give up our land for the project as per the old rates, and we want market price,” said Raghu, a farmer whose two acres of land at Huskuru has been notified. The BDA had notified 1,800 acres of land in 2007 and now, it has to issue another notification to acquire 750 acres more.
“Will the BDA fix the old rates for the land to be acquired or fix it afresh,” the farmers wanted to know besides wanting market price even for lands notified earlier. Karnataka Rajya Raitha Sangha leader Kodihalli Chandrashekar advocated the farmers’ interest and insisted on market price for their lands. The chairman and the commissioner promised to negotiate the price and convene another meeting on February 28.
The mega project is estimated to cost over Rs 21,000 crore with Rs 5,000 alone required for the land acquisition as per the old rates. But if the market price is considered, the cost will shoot up to Rs 31,000 crore. This is for the 1,800 acres of land notified. If over 700 acres more are acquired, the cost will go up again, sources said.