BENGALURU: Having completed its land audit of Arkavathy Layout, Bangalore Development Authority (BDA) has for the first time publicly revealed details of sites that are ready to be handed over to allottees who lost them. Maps highlighting the available land were put out on its website on Tuesday evening.
A total of 900 acres have been shown to be available, and 700 sites can be allotted on an immediate basis. With 330 acres stuck in litigation, sites can be allotted after the court verdict comes through, said a top BDA official.
“The availability of sites will offer major relief to land losers desperately waiting for a site here for over a decade. Of course, allotment would be made only on seniority basis,” he said. A number of problems have been plaguing this layout, affecting allottees for 13 years. The layout was planned by the State government in 2003-2004. A total of 2,750 acres were acquired in the preliminary notification and 8,813 sites were allotted across the 16 villages in Bengaluru East and Yelahanka villages.
However, the State government issued a series of redo (denotification) orders cancelling sites of 3,720 site allottees. A major move by BDA in its proposal made public, was to convert areas earmarked for parks and other amenities into residential ones, the official added. “This has to be approved by the government. The greenery lost in the process will be compensated by incorporating it in the sites that will be in our possession after the court verdict,” he explained.
Of the nearly 4,000 allottees awaiting alternative sites, 1,300 have agreed to take up exchange sites given to them at Nadaprabhu Kempegowda Layout, he said. “We have 330 acres under litigation. All cases pertaining to them have been bunched into one and it has been fully heard a year ago. The verdict on it is still being awaited. When it comes through, we would be enough to provide sites to another 1,900 waiting allottees.”
Another aspect being highlighted is the buffer zone proposed by the NGT. “This layout was proposed long ago and the recent directives on buffer might not be possible to be adhered to here. Hence, we are proposing a relaxation in that too,” the official explained.