BENGALURU: Even as the proposal to develop a string of satellite towns to decongest Bengaluru is struggling to make progress due to land acquisition obstacles, the state government is drawing up plans for developing a new city at Kolar Gold Fields (KGF).
This time, the government has decided on 11,000 acres belonging to Bharat Gold Mines Limited (BGML), a public sector enterprise of the Union government which was closed in 2001.
Global tenders will be invited for preparing the Detailed Project Report (DPR) and designing the city, which would be developed with private participation. The proposed city could enable to relocate around 20 lakh population of Bengaluru, said Minister for Urban Development Roshan Baig here on Tuesday.
A Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) would be formed to implement the proposed project with participation of private investors. However, the cost of the new city would be known only after the preparation of the DPR by the global agency, he said.
All factors such as underground drainage, sewerage, road, electricity, housing, drinking water would be taken into consideration while developing the city.
Water from desalination plants
Meeting drinking water needs of the proposed city would be the biggest challenge and the state government for the first time is keen to tap sea water for the purpose by setting up desalination plants.
These plants would be set up in Udupi (Rs 735.30 crore), Mangaluru (Rs 253.61 crore), Saligrama (Rs 76.71 crore) and Kundapura (Rs 154.42 crore).
These plants would be established as joint ventures with Israel-based IDE and Vagas, an Indian firm.
Water through desalination plants would be brought to KGF through the Yettinahole project pipelines.
The neighbouring Tamil Nadu government has already commissioned two desalination plants for meeting drinking water needs of Chennai, said Baig.
As for developing other proposed satellite towns, Baig said Rs 400 crore loan would be sought from the Asian Development Bank (ADB) for developing Devanahalli.
According to the feasibility report, the estimated cost of developing the town would be Rs 2,800 crore. Doddaballapur, Harohalli, Dobaspet and Bidadi too will be developed as satellite towns.