BENGALURU: The Supreme Court ruling recently that exempted land acquired for the formation of the Peripheral Ring Road (PRR) project of the Bangalore Development Authority (BDA) from being compensated under the Land Acquisition Act, 2013, has come as a shot in the arm for the cash-strapped organisation. It is likely to save around Rs 3,000 crore to be paid for acquiring land thereby slashing the overall project cost too.
The Rs 21,091-crore project, proposed 17 years ago to decongest the City, was to shell out a whopping Rs 15,475 crore just for land acquisition under the 2013 Act. The 73-km project with eight lanes and four service lanes will come up on 1810 acres of land in the three taluks of Bangalore North, Bangalore East and Anekal. It will encircle the City by commencing from Tumkuru Road on NH-48 at NICE Road junction and end on Hosur Road on NH-44 at Nice Road start point.
A bench of Justices S Abdul Nazeer and Sanjiv Khanna on January 20 overruled a HC judgment in this connection while hearing a case between Bangalore Development Authority vs The State of Karnataka & Others. BDA has in its application said that the direction by the HC had totally upset the budget calculation of the project.
The court in its verdict said, "The HC had erred in holding that in view of the repeal of the Land Acquisition Act by coming into force of the 2013 Act, the corresponding provisions of 2013 Act would regulate acquisition proceedings under the BDA Act and that this would include determination of compensation in accordance with the 2013 Act."
A top BDA official told TNIE that notification for the lands to be acquired for the project were done by 2007 itself. "The Act came into existence only in 2013. The SC verdict is a big relief for us as it would bring down the project cost. If compensation is paid under this as demanded by those whose lands were acquired, we would pay over Rs 15,000 crore just for land acquisition which is enormous. This ruling will help the Authority save nearly Rs 3,000 crore," he said.
The BDA plans to implement the project on a Private Public Partnership basis. "This proposal needs to be approved by the State Cabinet before we can go ahead with any step for the implementation of the project," he said.