BENGALURU: The exhaustive land audit by the Bangalore Development Authority (BDA) has helped it unearth nearly 10,000 of its sites tucked away in old layouts which it now plans to auction. It is looking at mobilising anywhere between Rs 10,000 crore and Rs 15,000 crore through them. This will help in pulling the BDA out of the precarious financial situation, said a senior official.
A senior BDA official told TNIE that only corner sites were auctioned off earlier while regular (intermediate) sites were allotted through a lottery kind of system. “After the land audit was completed in June and its findings submitted, the Supreme Court has recently ordered us to auction off the sites. Hence, we are looking at starting the process within 15 days with 500 sites,” he said.
Sites of various dimensions have been identified in the 64 BDA layouts where the audit was carried out including areas such as HSR Layout, Anjanapura, Banashankari and Indiranagar. The BDA has just notified auctioning of 400 corner sites. “We will auction corner sites as well as intermediate sites alternatingly. Each of these sites will fetch us a good sum as they are in our prime localities,” he said.
The official added that certain details about these sites were being gathered presently. The encumbrance certificate, site survey number and litigation issues are being looked at. The audit was carried out by EI Technologies Ltd over a period of two years and concluded in June this year. It identified 11,580 acres of BDA land.
The official added, “Though the audit has been done too late, the BDA now has a solid database. It will help us know every piece of land we possess and will go a long way in averting major scams we have witnessed in the past. It is quite ironic that a city reputed internationally for its IT skills is only now creating a digital record of its properties,” the official added.