BENGALURU: The Bangalore Development Authority has started the much-delayed process of collecting betterment charges from landowners of 827 acres of land in Nadaprabhu Kempegowda Layout (NPKL). It has sent out notices this week to owners to pay up the charges within a 90-day period.
The decision to levy this one-time fee on land initially notified for acquisition, but later dropped during the formation of the layout was taken in April 2019 to mobilise revenue for the authority. The fee aims to charge owners for the overall infrastructure provided in the neighbourhood which boosts their property value.
The previous government had approved the proposal in 2019, but technical issues and the pandemic ensured that the collection process never started. It was officially notified on April 20, 2023.
A Soujanya, Deputy Commissioner, Land Acquisitions Cell, BDA, told TNIE, “We have levied a fee of Rs 80,208 for one gunta of land in NPKL under Section (20) of the BDA Act. For one acre, it works out to a little over 32 lakh. Owners will be given a 90-day time period to pay up these charges from the date the notice was issued.”
BDA plans to collect Rs 265 crore from 357 stakeholders here, she added. “The layout is being built on 4,043 acres of land and these 827 acres mentioned in the preliminary notification were dropped in the final notification,” the DC said.
Tenders finalised
In other significant developments, most of the land acquisition hurdles to complete the 100-metre-wide Main Arterial Road running through the layout have been removed and it is being built at a rapid pace. The BDA has also finalised two major tenders pertaining to infrastructure work and the final approval from the board is awaited, said a senior official.
The tender to connect over 50 approach roads from the nine blocks of the layout to the 10.75-km MAR which runs through the layout linking Magadi Road and Mysuru Road. The lowest bidder has quoted Rs 43 crore. The tender for the 40-metre-wide road under the bridge below the Challaghatta railway line on Mysuru Road has been finalised for Rs 46 crore.